Month: March 2019

The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Five: Election Fever

Following the death of the local MP, Newtown is hit by Election Fever. Kit takes every advantage to catapult himself into the national spotlight, and we witness a piece of political satire which could air today and still be relevant.

About

The fifth episode of The Kit Curran Radio Show, ‘Election Fever’, aired on the 7th of May 1984 on ITV. Fittingly for such a politically-minded episode, this was three days after local elections were held in the UK. Produced by Thames Television and written by Andy Hamilton, it stars Denis Lawson as ‘Kit Curran’, Clive Merrison as ‘Damien Appleby’, Paul Brooke as ‘Les Toms’ and Brian Wilde as ‘Roland Simpson’.

Availability: Out on Region 2 DVD as of 2018. Be aware that the iTunes version is actually Series 2 mislabelled as Series 1. The watch quality of the DVD is better than these screencaps suggest—it’s certainly an improvement over the VHS rips of re-runs that were circling before it was released—but you can tell the footage hasn’t been best preserved.

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The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Four: P is for Positive

This week, Kit’s thinking positive, and wanting to make some changes. A positivity workshop seems like a great idea, but will it lead to unexpected consequences?

About

The fourth episode of The Kit Curran Radio Show, ‘P is for Positive’, aired on the 30th of April 1984 on ITV. Produced by Thames Television and written by Andy Hamilton, it stars Denis Lawson as ‘Kit Curran’, Clive Merrison as ‘Damien Appleby’, Paul Brooke as ‘Les Toms’ and Brian Wilde as ‘Roland Simpson’. Additional guest stars this episode include Debbi Blythe as ‘Sally Beamish’ and Joseph Marcell as ‘Constantine’.

Availability: Out on Region 2 DVD as of 2018. Be aware that the iTunes version is actually Series 2 mislabelled as Series 1. The watch quality of the DVD is better than these screencaps suggest—it’s certainly an improvement over the VHS rips of re-runs that were circling before it was released—but you can tell the footage hasn’t been best preserved.

Continue reading “The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Four: P is for Positive”

The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Three: Bread and Circuses

This week, Radio Newtown faces declining listener figures, and Roland kickstarts some new programming attempts in order to boost them. Some of those ideas are more successful than others. And then Kit weighs in. All in all, no good can come of that.

About

The third episode of The Kit Curran Radio Show, ‘Bread and Circuses’, aired on the 16th of April 1984 on ITV. Produced by Thames Television and written by Andy Hamilton, it stars Denis Lawson as ‘Kit Curran’, Clive Merrison as ‘Damien Appleby’, Paul Brooke as ‘Les Toms’ and Brian Wilde as ‘Roland Simpson’.

Availability: Out on Region 2 DVD as of 2018. Be aware that the iTunes version is actually Series 2 mislabelled as Series 1. The watch quality of the DVD is better than these screencaps suggest—it’s certainly an improvement over the VHS rips of re-runs that were circling before it was released—but you can tell the footage hasn’t been best preserved.

Continue reading “The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Three: Bread and Circuses”

The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Two: The New Broom

This week, Kit faces the fight of his life. His challenge? Convince Roland that he is not in fact a brazen con-man, and he deserves to keep his job. The only problem with that? Roland doesn’t believe a word that comes out his mouth. Things are about to get interesting.

About

The second episode of The Kit Curran Radio Show, ‘The New Broom’, aired on the 9th of April 1984 on ITV. Produced by Thames Television and written by Andy Hamilton, it stars Denis Lawson as ‘Kit Curran’, Clive Merrison as ‘Damien Appleby’, Paul Brooke as ‘Les Toms’ and Brian Wilde as ‘Roland Simpson’. Additional guest stars this episode include Debbi Blythe as ‘Sally Beamish’, Joseph Marcell as ‘Constantine’ and Maev Alexander as ‘Joanne Short’.

Availability: Out on Region 2 DVD as of 2018. Be aware that the iTunes version is actually Series 2 mislabelled as Series 1. The watch quality of the DVD is better than these screencaps suggest—it’s certainly an improvement over the VHS rips of re-runs that were circling before it was released—but you can tell the footage hasn’t been best preserved.

Continue reading “The Kit Curran Radio Show, Episode Two: The New Broom”