PODCAST: Hide

A terrifying thing happened to us when we were getting ready to record this podcast. A man, dressed all in rags, knocked at the door and then started screaming at us and clawing at thin air. We didn't know how to react, we just stood there transfixed in sheer terror. Suddenly, he stopped. "This is Manor Grove, right"? "No," we replied, "that's a couple of streets away". "My apologies," he said, "they are the people expecting the Insane-Screaming-Vagrant-o-Gram" and left. Thus our sheer terror was actually unnecessary in the face of this explanation. Then we recorded a podcast about Hide, the Doctor Who episode that disguises itself as something else and then deliberately dismantles its terror.

Join Joe and Chris as they talk about Nigel Kneale's brilliant 1972 ghost story The Stone Tape, Breaking Bad, the classic Doctor Who serial Ghost Light, dead bass players and as they manage not to play out on a spooky song, even after claiming that they would (unless, of course, you're terrified by Bugsy Malone, which would be fine).


Listen to HIDE

Image courtesy of Grande-Caps
Available playlist on Spotify

PODCAST: Cold War

In Cold War, regular Who contributor and consummate ginger Mark Gatiss delivers a classic Who-style claustrophobic yarn, complete with returning old-school monsters... OR DOES HE? If we were being uncharitable (and when are we anything else?) we might claim that sentence right there was more tension than Gatiss managed in the entire episode; the consensus on which seems to be that it somehow managed to combine several potentially-exciting ingredients (Russians! Submarine! Ice Warriors! David Warner! Ultravox!) into a fairly dull stew.

Still, there was stuff to enjoy about it, and no doubt some of it will come up in the episode. As will quickly become apparent, Joe was so tired during the recording that he can't remember much of what was said, although it seems that Cold War is not an episode about which much can be said. Therefore, he would like to apologise in advance for a sub-standard performance. He'd make some kind of self-deprecating crack about his performance always being sub-standard but Chris would probably tell him off for that. (Yes, I would - Chris)

Anyway, join us for chills (because it's cold, geddit), if not exactly for spills and wonder at what surely filthy story Joe requested was edited out of the podcast. Answers on a postcard.

Listen to COLD WAR.


Image courtesy of Grande-Caps.
Available playlist on Spotify

PODCAST: The Rings of Akhaten

Take it all, baby! Take ALL of this podcast! Take it right down into your ears.

The Rings of Akhaten, then. It's probably fair to say that this wasn't popular with your general audience, but do we fall into step with this general audience or did we think it was brilliant? Or, did we think it was broadly acceptable but with too many problems to ignore? Or do we largely repeat the anti-climactic Silurian Smackdown 2020 A.D. wherein our opinions are slightly more divergent from each other than usual? Who knows? We do, and so will you once you listen.

And now, our usual change to a third-person viewpoint for the next paragraph...

Join Joe and Chris as they pick songs, drink strawberry beer, big up Caro Skinner, fail to avoid bringing up Margaret Thatcher, differentiate between the two characters called Dennis the Menace (and Chris gets their creation date wrong by one year) and discuss an episode of Doctor Who without lapsing into song all that much.

And, yes, we mention the Hooloovoo.

Listen to THE RINGS OF AKHATEN

Image courtesy of Grande-Caps.
Available playlist on Spotify

PODCAST: The Bells of Saint John

So she's finally here, performing for you. It's Clara Oswald. The third one and seemingly the "proper" one, but who knows? Well, the writer knows and he's not going to tell you other than via the medium of a television series which, frankly, is the point.

Join Joe and Chris as they wrestle with another new way of recording the episode and finding a day to do it on given their new, busy schedules as functional humans in the world at large.

Did we like Richard E. Grant's Matrix-style face? Did we enjoy the irony of the Doctor releasing hundreds of people from the same eternal living hell that he once forced on a beloved character? Did we enjoy Murray Gold acting like he was a Britpop band?

Find out!

By listening!

To the podcast!

Listen to THE BELLS OF SAINT JOHN

If, after this, you haven't had enough Chris and want to hear him slightly drunk and talking about Doctor Who to people who should know better, hit up the - at time of writing - current Nights at the Round Table podcast episode.

Lamentably, Sharon of Sonic Biro fame has decided to stop uploading new Doctor Who screencaps. This is a shame but we wish her all the best. She has also recommended a successor on her site so, for the first time, we are proud to say:

Image courtesy of Grande-Caps.
Available playlist on Spotify




Pigeons seem to like the sound of my voice.