Pop Screen has confronted some horrors in its recent Halloween month, but nothing like what Graham and Mark come up against this week: Noel Edmonds. The DJ-turned-mystical guru pops up in Glitter, one of two episodes of the 1970s anthology series Second City Firsts that feature pop stars, and it’s enough to send Graham into a journey into the heart of Blobbyland. But there’s also the film’s main star to reckon with – Toyah Wilcox, captured here just before her punk makeover, committing the ultimate sin of singing with a band called Bilbo Baggins.
Second City Firsts also dipped its toe into the pop pond with Squire, an excellent, magic-realist tale of a working-class dreamer played by Lindisfarne’s Alan Hull. Which of our two hosts – the North-Easterner Graham, the North-Westerner Mark – is a Lindisfarne fan? The answer may surprise you! We also discuss the many, depressingly business-related reasons why the single television play fell from fashion, the recent British film that reminded us of Squire, the mystery of the leaping dog, and why Graham is a capitalist [EXPLETIVE DELETED].
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Episode 83: Toyah Wilcox in Second City Firsts
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