VISION ON SOUND

WARREN CUMMINGS discusses the second version of TV's SPECIAL BRANCH.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 4th 2026.This week, WARREN CUMMINGS is back and, perhaps rather surprisingly for when we appear together on VISION ON SOUND these days, he decided that he’d quite like to talk about one TV show.Or perhaps more accurately, one iteration of a TV show that appeared in two wildly different formats in the course of a four year run.SPECIAL BRANCH, a police series that (not unsurprisingly) told stories about the activities of that particular section of the police force first appeared as a THAMES TELEVISION studio-based drama in 1969. It starred DERREN NESBITT as DCI ELLIOT JORDAN alongside WENSLEY PITHEY and later FULTON MACKAY and ran for 27 episodes spread across two series before vanishing seemingly forever in November 1970.In 1973, when the newly-formed EUSTON FILMS production company created by THAMES were looking for a series to launch their new production style, they took the concept down from the shelf, blew off the fingerprint dust, and set about retooling the series as an action-packed film series intended for the international market, starring the craggy-faced GEORGE SEWELL as DCI ALAN CRAVEN.That they didn’t quite succeed straight off the bat, and the show only ran for two seasons of 13 episodes each, doesn’t seem to matter all that much, because, whilst the series was popular enough domestically (especially once the producers added the popular face of PATRICK MOWER into the mix) it is a very good example of a production company learning on the job to make the sort of high-octane television that they were hoping to, and, when production ceased, the team almost immediately geared up to create THE SWEENEY and, in terms of EUSTON FILMS anyway, the rest is TV history.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

THE SHY YETI looks out for LOOK-IN!First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 27th 2026.This week, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself is back and he’s been on a bit of a spending spree, tracking down for his collection some early copies of a comic / magazine that was something of a cornerstone of our TV appreciation for kids like me in the 1970s.LOOK-IN, the self-styled “JUNIOR TV TIMES” that, with its articles on popular TV, pop stars, football and the like, cast its popularity net far and wide amongst the pop culture seekers of that particular decade and, to a far lesser extent, into the eighties and beyond.Glossy in finish, and featuring great photos and articles, as well as some gorgeous cover art, how could we not be tempted by this fine example of a magazine specifically (and very successfully) aimed so precisely at our age group, no matter what our interests might have been?Despite the articles on the popular chart bands of the time, and the bigger movies of the era including JAMES BOND and STAR WARS, perhaps inevitably it was the telly stuff that drew kids like me in, especially with the beautifully rendered comic strip art that extended the adventures of our favourite TV adventure series, and really were a big part of the draw for those of us who bought LOOK-IN each and every week.THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, THE BIONIC WOMAN, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE and SPACE: 1999 might have been some of my favourite comic strip adventures of that era, and occasionally might have been more exciting than the shows that spawned them, but other shows such as FOLLYFOOT, TIMESLIP, DICK TURPIN, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON were also featured, as well as comic greats such as… BENNY HILL.PAUL has been tracking down some of the rarer early issues, and that was the starting point for this week’s conversation, so I hope you’ll enjoy thi rather nostalgic hour as we talk about all things LOOK-IN PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS gets increasingly random.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 20th 2026.This week’s show is basically a bit of a random, archive TV related conversation that WARREN CUMMINGS and I had back in June, before VISION ON SOUND took its summer break.Over the course of this hour we cover a lot of ground, from BLUE PETER, via GRANGE HILL and THE TOMORROW PEOPLE to discuss the various merits of CYRIL SHAPS, HARRY SULLIVAN, the future of DOCTOR WHO, which lost TV shows WARREN would most like to see more episodes of, and quite a lot more, at least some of which is really quite interesting, and a lot of which remains quite relevant as we arrive into the autumn, ready to cool down a little, and get back to work. Anyway, I’ve dug this out of the dusty archives for you to listen to, and I hope that you enjoy it.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

VISION ON SOUND takes part in WHOOVERVILLE 17.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 13th 2026.VoS 295 is a slightly shorter episode than is usual (which hopefully partially explains my extended intro blurb) of which a large part was recorded on stage in the METRO CINEMA at QUAD, DERBY ob SEPTEMBER 5th 2026.STEVE HATCHER joins me on stage to chat with JASON HAIGH-ELLERY about BIG FINISH PRODUCTIONS and (amongst other topics) their adaptations of classic TV shows for audio. It is a DOCTOR WHO event, so there's a fair amount of chat about that show, obviously, but I hope we entertained our audience on the day with some interesting insights into the wider world of archive TV, and I hope that listeners to VISION ON SOUND will enjoy the results too.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI looks at DANGER MAN.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 6th 2026."Every radio station has its specialised talk show presenters: America, Howard Stern; France, Philippe Bouvard; England, James O’Brien. FAB Radio International also has its own.A messy job? Well, that's when they usually call on me, or someone like me. Oh yes -- my name is Holmes. Martin Holmes."PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.