Skimming through this tape confused me for a bit, as it’s atypical of what I usually record. But I realised it must be one recorded by my younger sister, although I’m not sure why I have it.
But it’s Christmas, which is always nice. After a trailer for Mission Impossible there’s another nice ident.
Then a movie, Matilda. This became a regular family favourite in our house. Danny De Vito really is the perfect director for Roald Dahl, as he doesn’t shy away from the darkness that’s always there. And as a bonus, he’s in the movie as Matilda’s horrible dad.
His real-life wife Rhea Perlman plays his screen wife, and is also perfect.
Mara Wilson plays Matilda. She’s great too.
Embeth Davidtz plays Miss Honey, Matilda’s sympathetic teacher.
Pam Ferris plays the monstrous headmistress Miss Trunchbull. One of cinema’s greatest villains, as far as I’m concerned.
Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Tracey Walter play two FBI agents staking out Matilda’s dad’s business.
It really is a great film.
BBC Genome: BBC One – 26th December 1999 – 14:45
After this there’s a trailer for a star studded production of David Copperfield.
Then the recording switches to ITV, and this is what told me it definitely wasn’t a tape that I recorded, as there’s an episode of Coronation Street. At least Vera Duckworth is still there.
Then recording switches back to BBC1, another trailer for Mission: Impossible
Then, a lovely, quiet, festive edition of Casualty – Peace on Earth, in which, I’ve no doubt, the whole department is quiet and all the staff bring in board games to play. But I see they’re still starting episodes like Final Destination where you’re wondering where the accident will happen.
A man found struggling for breath, living in a bunker, asks “Have I made it? Is it the Millennium?” I really hope he’s a time traveller.
“I’m an actor. I’m in a Pantomime.” “Oh, which one?”
It takes a while before the real catastrophe happens – a match is lit in a flat filling with gas.
Drunk Santa from the opening fell off a wall and has a possible broken back. His partner is snotty with the medical staff. “Woah, woah, woah, you’re the doctor, aren’t you? You’re meant to fix people.” “Well I wouldn’t put it quite like that.” “We fix computers. Now if we can’t tell our clients what’s wrong then we get the sack.” But she’s asking the doctor to diagnose without doing all the necessary tests. If a computer engineer just guessed like that, they’d deserve to get the sack. They’re supposed to be flying to New York to do something to do with the Millennium Bug, but again, if they haven’t fixed it already, it’s way too late now.
Looks like the whole cast of Snow White might have food poisoning.
I don’t watch Casualty, but I enjoyed this, especially the heart-tugging carol singing at the end – very It’s A Wonderful Life.
BBC Genome: BBC One – 26th December 1999 – 20:00
After this, there’s a trailer for Bank Holiday Tuesday, And there’s a glimpse of Diana Rigg in another trailer that gets cut off when the recording stops. It’s over a month since she died, so I don’t feel this applies to the blog’s curse, but I’m still sad.
The next programme is Elton John: My Gift is My Song, an interview with Elton John by David Frost. Another clue this is my sister’s tape, as she’s a massive Elton fan. In this fairly honest interview, he claims he’s been sober for nine years, but his wardrobe choices make me wonder.
After this, recording switches, back to BBC One, and we’re out of Christmas now. It’s the last part of a whole weekend of music, BBC Music Live Finale. And presenting is are Fiona Bruce and John Inverdale. Wait, what? This intro seems odd, because Inverdale is looking at the wrong camera, until I realised that this intro is also going out to BBC 2 and he’s looking into the BBC2 camera.
There’s going to be a big performance of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day at the end of the show, and one lucky viewer has been chosen to join in from their home – they give the whole address, too which seems unwise.
After Kevin Spacey a couple of days ago, here’s Rolf Harris now, introducing a band that’s been voted for by the British public. The members, their clothes and the song they’re going to sing were all chosen by the public.
Then it’s over to Kate Thornton at Somerset House. Honestly, there’s been so much throwing to different presenters, I’m wondering if they’re actually going to have any music on this music show.
Almost. Here’s the band, dubbed ML2K, and I’m here to tell you they are a singing and dancing manifestation of everything wrong with letting people vote on anything. Brexit in musical form. The Boaty McBoatface of pop bands. Singing ‘Everlasting Love’, a song I actually liked up until this moment. (Although to be fair to these poor young people, I bet they couldn’t hear the playback properly.)
Jayne Middlemiss tells us that they’ve been awake for 23 hours, which really can’t have helped that performance.
Then she throws to Jamie Theakston, at the end of a long Top of the Pops concert at Sheffield Arena.
There’s a performance from Melanie C and Bryan Adams. This one is also a little out of tune.
Much better is Gabrielle performing Dreams.
Here’s Ronan Keating singing ‘When You Say Nothing At All’
Back to the house of the winner we saw earlier, Francesca. “How’s the girl?” asks Rolf Harris, which now sounds foreboding.
Patrick Kielty talks to Trevor Horn, who has been putting together a piece representing all the music of the weekend.
It’s over to Dublin for more presenters.
And I’m going to assume that the Sheffield Arena bit was pre-recorded, because here’s Ronan Keating again.
They chat to Paddy Moloney of the Chieftans.
A performance from the Corrs.
Ooh, now it’s Sinead O’Connor. To paraphrase David Letterman, I wonder who she’s pissed at tonight.
Next, they speak to Lou Reed in New York.
Then it’s over to Woburn Abbey for Elton John. He performs his most famous hit, ‘Burning Down the Mission’. To be fair, it’s one of his favourite live songs, and there was at least one bloke in the front row mouthing all the words.
After we listen to Trevor Horn’s compilation of moments from the past 24 hours, we finally get to the live, mass rendition of Lou Reed’s Perfect Day. It’s a bit shambolic, but by no means a disaster. Here’s someone else’s upload of it.
BBC Genome: BBC One – 29th May 2000 – 21:00
After this, there’s a trailer for Euro 2000, Ruby’s American Pie and Secret Life of a Crocodile.
Then this recording stops, and underneath there’s the second half of an episode of The 11 O’Clock Show. The sound on this recording is very muted so it’s hard to hear.
They’re joined by Lee Mack.
Ricky Gervais did a bit.
A couple of familiar names on the writing team – Charlie Brooker, and script editor Dave Gorman.
And additional material from Simon Blackwell, Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain.
After this, there’s an episode of So Graham Norton featuring Twiggy.
And Huey Morgan from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals.
The tape ends right after this programme.
Adverts:
- trail: Cinderella
- Courts – Paul Shearer
- Homebase – Neil Morrissey Leslie Ash
- Time Computers – Leonard Nimoy
- JD Sports
- Southern Comfort
- DFS
- trail: Airline At Christmas
- trail: The Turn of the Screw
- Yellow Pages
- Debenhams
- Rennie Duo
- Moben
- DFS
- Boots Opticians
- KFC
- Argos
- trail: Midsomer Murders
- Renault Megane
- National Lottery
- Orange
- Sainsbury’s
- Standard Life
- Homebase – Neil Morrissey Leslie Ash
- Samsung Hands Free Phone
- House of Fraser
- Renault
- Renault Clio
- Yellow Pages
- JMC
- Standard Life
- House of Fraser
- PC World
- Monster.co.uk
- Renault Clio
- trail: Rising Sun
- Johnny Vaughan’s All The Rage
- Somerfield
- PC World
- Carphone Warehouse
- Big Bottom Live on video
- Kodak Advantix
- Paris
- MVC
- John Smith’s
- Fast Football on video
- trail: Friends
- Bell’s Whiskey
- Virgin Mobile
- Kronenbourg 1664
- Ministry of Sound – The Annual
- Wilkinson Sword
- Burton
- Out & About
- Nintendo 64
- Kit Kat
- Ultraviolet
- Bell’s Whiskey
VHiStory 
Ah, Melanie Chisholm, the only Spice Girl who I don’t want to strangle.
Probably mentioned this before, but Danny DeVito as a director has a hugely bleak view of humanity. So perfect for Roald Dahl. He should do The Twits, that’s right up his street.
Yes! Music Live! And I vividly remember that bit on both BBC1 and BBC2, which was great fun, I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. It was a very strange affair, for the previous few years the Beeb had done Music Live over the Bank Holiday weekend where they’d descend en masse to a city for sundry Radio 1 Roadshows, concerts, recitals and so on (I remember in 1995 it ended with a simulcast on Radios 1, 2 and 3 with a concert intended to appeal to listeners of all three stations) and then in 2000, to be suitably millennial, they did it nationwide and did a 24 hour TV show out of it.
The scheduling was very strange because it flitted around BBC1 and BBC2 seemingly at a whim – https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/2000-05-29 – including a bit where they moved to BBC2 for an hour in mid-morning just so they could show The Two Ronnies on BBC1. And there were some bizarre combinations of presenters, including Phill Jupitus and Diane Louise Jordan together at last. And for the final hour they were on both BBC1 and BBC2 doing different things, as you can see.
Of course, they were well ahead of their time in creating a band from scratch as a year later that would fill several months of Saturday night primetime. I remember the bit in Dublin, it was live from Hot Press Uncovered, the Irish equivalent of something like the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, and was presumably also live on RTE because I remember the presenters at the venue spending ages talking about the umpteen bands coming up, none of whom we saw, I’m not sure they knew they were also live on the Beeb at the time.
What a strange event it all was, but it was a bit better than ITV’s Day of Promise a few weeks earlier.
The young and gorgeous Fiona Bruce. Perhaps a bit too sexy to present BBC News back then.
I watched Coronation Street regularly back then in ’99. They had their first ever character addicted to drugs back then (barmaid Leanne) and the stories were generally far better and more believable unlike the travesty it is now.
My brother and I religiously watched The 11 O’Clock Show. He found Ricky Gervais hilarious in a dirty way. But he couldn’t stand Daisy Donovan.