Send us a text They say laughter is the best medicine. But who are "they" and are they right? Thank goodness Kieran Prendiville is here to help us find out. A very special episode of Tomorrow's World from 1982 with some very special guests and some very poor jokes. You're guaranteed a rib-tickling time, particularly if you happen to be a chimp. Support the show If you press on that link above here that says "Support the show", you can chuck us a couple of quid to show your appreciati...
Send us a text Despite only just digesting episode 53, Russ and Mark are back with a practically snack-sized morsel from 1972. This episode of Tomorrow's World may be unusually short, but it punches well above its weight in terms of quality content. Making a very welcome return is James Burke, with an all-timer of a segment explaining how anyone can commit the heist of the century using only a cigarette machine and a stationery cupboard. Raymond Baxter is holding fort back at the stud...
Send us a text This time round Russ and Mark decide to heed the advice of Jarvis Cocker and meet up in the year 2000 for the first proper Tomorrow's World episode broadcast in the new millennium. Is it strange now we're all fully grown? Well, not strange exactly. More bang average to be honest. But as always, there's fun to had taking it all apart. Philippa Forrester and Peter Snow present from the most gantry-infested set of them all, while also reporting from Japan and Seattle where they t...
Send us a text Please join us in congratulating Mark for recently securing an exciting new job as chief pencil pusher at one of London's most delicious gravy depositories. In honour of the move, your auditors have dug out an episode of Tomorrow's World that features an interesting new development in the world of job applications. Also in the show, Peter Macann waves a gun around in a supermarket, Judith Hann comes to the rescue of Kentish beer drinkers, Howard Stableford highlights Norw...
Send us a text Russ and Mark have finally finished tidying up after the big 50th party and now it's back to work doing some serious auditing. This episode is in response to a listener enquiring as to the wherabouts of William Woollard. So here he is, joined by fellow TW GOATs Raymond Baxter, Judith Hann and Michael Rodd. Bit of an engineering focus this time round, as we take a look at: - A thrilling new way to apply liquid gaskets - Funky anti-lock brakes for motorbikes - The scourge o...
Send us a text The big five-O. The half century. The golden jubilee. That's 50 editions of your favourite auditing podcast in the bag. That's a whopping 3.5% of all episodes of Tomorrow's World ever made that we've managed to cover (and 17% of all episodes of h&p@bbc. for less understandable reasons) To celebrate such an auspicious occasion, Russ & Mark travel back 60 years to take a look at what the BBC claims is the first ever episode of TW (and we suspect is actually the second ep...
Send us a text We've just had the Oscars and in timely fashion Russ & Mark take the opportunity to audit a Hollywood Special of Tomorrow's World from the summer of 1998, the worst year for cinema in living memory. Grab your bucket of popcorn and overpriced fizzy pop, sit back in your sticky seat and relax while Philippa Forrester and Craig Doyle bring us the following from the heart of Tinseltown: - Motion capture featuring Trevor the rabbit - Some film trailers - The marvellous make-up...
Send us a text Russ & Mark look back to January 1985, when Ronald Reagan had his second presidential inauguration - an event with many similarities to Trump's recent one. This episode of Tomorrow's World from just a few days before strives to keep us warm and cosy on a chilly winter night with the following segments: Maggie Philbin tests out a new electric blanket, plus electric carpets and a mysterious Norwegian bicycle wheel. Peter Macann tries out a new method for inserting pins into t...
Send us a text Russ & Mark finally tackle the big beast that they have previously avoided - the classic Tomorrow's World Christmas Quiz. Hosted, as ever, by Howard Stableford, it's a lovely lump of festive fun. Obviously there's the usual crew of Judith Hann, Peter Macann and Maggie Philbin, but because it's Christmas we've also got Moira Stuart, Keith Chegwin, George Takei and the unassailable Rod Hull and Emu. Festive gold! Support the show If you press on that link above here tha...
Send us a text We all need cheering up sometimes don't we? And what better way to do that than for your auditors to dig out a brand new tune from the burgeoning Michael Rodd songbook? Sadly, it seems no good deed goes unpunished as the rest of this episode is an absolute dog's breakfast. Feel free to switch off after the opening song - but if you don't, here's what else you can expect: - A man with a dicky ticker putting his hand in a bucket of water - Michael Rodd shuffling in front of, sit...
Send us a text We all remember the famous Ronald Reagan speech where he implored "Mr. Hasselhoff, tear down this wall!" But what wall was he talking about? The Berlin Wall of course! And it turns out that Big Ronnie's wishes were granted 35 years ago this very day (if you're listening on day of release). In order to celebrate this classic toppling event, your auditors travel even further back in time to an era when that big pile of rubble was still very much wall-shaped for a very speci...
Send us a text As far as TV sitcoms go, no single episode of anything has made Russ laugh more than series 1, episode 2 of Bottom - the one where the gas man turns up. So to commemorate this perfect half hour of television, your auditors take a look at the episode of Tomorrow's World broadcast just two days prior. It's the first in a new series and marks the very start of the 90s "drum theme" era - which means we see Carmen Pryce's debut segment (in a small European town, natch) and short-liv...
Send us a text For only the second time ever, your auditors take a special look at an episode handpicked by one of their very favourite people - an actual paying subscriber. Steve wrote to us claiming that he remembered Howard's first ever appearance on Tomorrow's World with a level of clarity and detail that seems humanly impossible for a live programme last seen 39 years ago. So despite this, did he somehow defy the mists of time and remember it right? Listen on and find out... Suppor...
Send us a text No doubt you're all glued to your televisions, cheering on highly trained athletes performing incredible physical feats in events of which you only have the vaguest understanding. Yes, the Olympics are on at the moment - and rather than listening to the pointless TV commentary, why not stick on our very special Olympic-themed episode of the podcast for a veritable biathlon of entertainment? Howard Stableford and Shahnaz Pakravan travel over to Atlanta, the host city for ...
Send us a text As the nation prepares to go to the polls, Russ & Mark journey back a mere 23 years to the last episode of Tomorrow's World to coincide with a UK General Election to see if things have only got better. Hosting in the studio, Peter Snow has forgotten his swingometer - but luckily Philippa Forrester is also there to set off our schwingometers, as she visits Wales to see a new way of rescuing people with a firehose (you won't believe who she bumps into...) Meanwhile, Katie K...
Send us a text To celebrate the podcast reaching the Big 4-0, Russ and Mark audit a very special episode of Tomorrow's World broadcast on the day that the Channel Tunnel opened - exactly 30 years ago today. Howard Stableford and Carmen Pryce give us a comprehensive overview of various aspects of this engineering marvel - including segments on the Eurostar, Le Shuttle, sea levels, ferries, seasickness, and the threat of French rabies. There's also a very special bonus extra bit at the en...
Send us a text Let us travel back almost exactly 45 years to a time when "Boomer" was a cool name and "Starbuck" had nothing to do with coffee. Battlestar Galactica has just been released in UK cinemas, so surely the team at Tomorrow's World will pull out all the stops to make sure their small screen science fact is as exciting as the big screen science fiction? Hmmm. Well, maybe not. There's a certain sense that things aren't firing on all cylinders this episode, with segments on a rob...
Send us a text According to the sorts of people on the internet who make up quotes and then attribute them to famous people in order to sell posters and T-shirts, Gandhi once said "If you don't ask, you don't get". And what a wise man he was (if he said that, which he almost certainly didn't). You see, one of our esteemed subscribers had the revolutionary idea of asking us to audit a particular episode, which features Howard Stableford arguing with a talking Hoover, and that is exactly what...
Send us a text In the wake of an extremely indulgent Christmas and birthday double-whammy, Russ turns to Tomorrow's World for inspiration in an episode from January 1998 that features Peter Snow examining diets and calorie counting. What a fat load of good that turns out to be. Meanwhile, Mark explains why he thinks four eyes are better than two as we watch Anya Sitaram looking at developments in the world of laser eye surgery. Elsewhere, Philippa Forrester presents from a gantry (hooray!), C...
Send us a text To paraphrase the legendary 1985 pub car park musician rumble champion Boy George: "And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy. Throw your arms around Tomorrow's World at Christmas time." So that's what we're doing. And it will be extra comfy as everyone is wearing extremely cosy-looking knitwear. This is a real Christmas treat with everything for all the family: booze, toys, chocs and John Rambo. Listen on as Russ & Mark - broadcasting live from the Dutch ...