DIDDLY DUM PODCAST 148 – Uroundels

Doctor Who: Diddly Dum Podcast

Mark from the “42 to Doomsday” podcast joins us and chooses the Fifth Doctor story “Frontios” to discuss. He also brings along David Banks’s “Cybermen” book to present to The Whoseum. Along the way, we look at the ethics of getting your todger out at work.

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SHOWNOTES

(00:01:35) Our guest on this episode is Mark from the notorious 42 to Doomsday podcast.

(00:01:59) The “friends, romans, countrymen” line here is of course a tribute to the death speech of Julius Caesar as performed in the film “Carry on Cleo” by Kenneth Williams.

(00:02:21) Issi Noho was the eponymous main character in a series of books and children’s TV programmes programmes created, written and narrated by author Keith Chatfield. 52 episodes of the television programme were produced for Thames Television between 1974 and 1978. Issi Noho is a panda with magic powers. His magic results from completing the vacant square in a series of magic number squares that he inherited from his Chinese ancestors. In a magic square the numbers must come to the same total in whichever direction they are added up, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Issi’s poor arithmetic causes frequent mathematical errors, with unexpected and humorous consequences. Issi’s name comes from the middle letters of THIS SIDE UP, USE NO HOOKS. These were the words on the packing case in which he was discovered by the children, Sally and Andrew. Issi had camouflaged his packing case with branches and leaves and the children could only see the middle letters ISSI NOHO, which they took to be his name.

(00:10:10) In 1991, the BBC and Grundy released a video game for Commodore based on the TV soap opera “Neighbours”.

(00:12:50) As an idea for a possible working title for the Diddly Dum Podcast, “Clockwork Rocket Ship” was inspired by a line from the song “Womble of the Universe”. This was a single by British novelty pop group the Wombles and appears on their 1974 album “Keep on Wombling”, a partial concept album with the first side following singer Orinoco through a series of dreams. The styles included pop, rock and classical and the The album spent six weeks in the UK album charts, peaking at number 17. #The Wombles featured musicians dressed as the characters from the children’s TV show “The Wombles” (voiced of course by Doctor Who legend Bernard Cribbins). Songwriter and record producer Mike Batt wrote and also performed many commercially successful singles and albums as the Wombles with other collaborators. In 2011, the band played at The Glastonbury Festival.

(00:14:36) This musical snatch is of course from “Mickey”, the 1981 song recorded by American singer and choreographer Toni Basil on her debut album “Word of Mouth”. Written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn as “Kitty”, it was first recorded by UK music group Racey. Toni Basil changed the name from Kitty to Mickey to make the song about a man. Reissued in January 1982, “Mickey” quickly became a substantial UK hit, reaching number 2. It was issued in Australia by April, where over the summer it rose to number 1.

(00:25:55) “Kklak: The Doctor Who Art of Chris Achilléos” collects the entirety of Achilléos’ Doctor Who artwork in chronological order, along with commentary from Achilléos himself (as well as some fans) – presenting the definitive guide to his seminal work. The book also includes a small contribution from twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi and a foreword from Achilléos’ long-time friend and collaborator, the late Terrance Dicks. Featuring every one of Achilléos’ Doctor Who designs, as well as never before seen material giving insight into his creative process, Kklak: the Doctor Who Art of Chris Achilléos is released 2020 by Candy Jar Books.

(00:41:42) Hard work by the Diddly Dum Restoration Team on cleaning up the soundtrack of “Frontios” has revealed the original purpose of the TARDIS roundels and the relevant video clip can be found here.

(00:47:45) The Mighty Bhoosh character Charlie appears in Series One, Episode Six “Charlie”. The protagonist of Vince Noir’s books, Charlie is made of used bubblegum, has a mustache, and wears a bowler hat. At one point in time, Charlie had Inuits living inside of him. They later died, for which Charlie feels great guilt. He is real, despite Howard Moon’s scornful disbelief when told Charlie’s life story, and arrives at the zoo to take revenge on Dixon Bainbridge and Hamilton Cork for their attempt to steal his life’s story.

(01:09:15) “Doctor Who: Cybermen” is a combination fiction/non-fiction book that explores the history of the Cybermen in Doctor Who (using a style that mixes non-fiction documentary with in-universe history). The book’s author, David Banks, portrayed the Cyber-leader in several television episodes, as well as the Doctor during one performance of “The UItimate Adventure”.

(01:14:00) The “Dalek book” which Mark is referring to at this point is “The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book“, a reference book/guide about the Daleks written by John Peel and Terru Nation. A guide to each Dalek episode up through “Revelation of the Daleks” comprised most of the book, effectively telling the story of the Daleks in the real world. Also featured was “The History of the Daleks”, a retelling of Dalek history from an in-universe perspective. Other features include information on other Dalek media and merchandise, and story outlines for early or unproduced stories.

(01:01:16) “The ArcHive Tapes“, later released as “The ArcHive Tapes: Cybermen – The Hypothesised History Of The Cyber Race“, were an audio adaptation of the in-universe biographical elements of the David Banks book “Doctor Who; Cybermen”. The tapes recount Banks’ interpretation of the history of the Cybermen. The series comprises a set of four audiocassettes. The series was narrated and produced by David Banks.

The Diddly Dum Podcast acknowledges the copyright of anyone we’ve pinched anything from.