iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark GJ

@brokentv.uk

1.7K followers 1K following 6K posts

It takes a village of dozens to hold me back - Current project: Auntie's Favourites - The stories behind the BBC's 250 Most-Broadcast Programmes. Current progress: Finding all the bad bits in first draft brokentv.uk

Posts Replies Media

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/10/2026

Big 'Eras Video' vibes.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/10/2026

It's no

The ident for the short lived Sky Soap channel.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/10/2026

I can't believe it's only today I've learned of Radio 4 broadcasting software - actual software like you'd get on a cassette tape - in 1984. What a listing this is.

BBC Genome listing:
First broadcast: Mon 6th Feb 1984, 00:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM
12.23-12.28* am The Chip Shop Takeaway Service
Barry Norman invites you to sample some Basicode computer software. Record the bleeps, feed them into your home computer and savour the programs.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 01/10/2026

*late 80s. Though the late 90s Lotto kit would also be welcomed back.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 01/10/2026

Watching the Denmark game last week made me pine for the Hummel kit of the late 90s. I don't think I've got the physique to look good in the Kappa shirt any more.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 27/09/2026

If it wasn't nearly midnight on a Sunday, I could very easily just spend an age copy-pasting in brilliant bits from Stuff.

Fake production company end card from Alexei Sayle's Stuff. Four stylised "men's toilet" style 'man' graphics above the caption "A Four Knob-Ends With an Office in Dean Street Production for the BBC".

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

Huge and unprecedented sanctions due to be put in place as City found guilty of 114 from 115 charges.

Steve Coogan in The Bureau saying he's going to impose a transfer ban for an hour.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 24/09/2026

Oh, go on then. Limited myself to no more than one game from any system (that I played each game on). More details in alt text for any hoot-givers.

A grid of game covers: Venture (Colecovision), Repton 2 (Electron), Turbo Esprit (Spectrum), Bubble Bobble (Arcade), SWOS (Amiga), Tetris DX (GBC), Perfect Dark (N64), OutRun 2006 C2C (360), Cyberpunk 2077 (PC).

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 24/09/2026

Lovely stuff! And it send me scampering down a YS rabbit hole, where I got this reminder of how brilliant Duncan McDonald was:

Comic strip: Monty & Chums, where two potatoes talk about the Open University.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

I respect our British culture. DO YOU?

Geoff Capes holding up SuperGran in an empty athletics stadium

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

Oh, it can get worse. Much worse.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

All seems good here, though. That's the Chris Lowe we all know and love.

Spotify's SongDNA page getting the wrong Chris Lowe, picking out a (I'm assuming) American crooner of some kind

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

The time when Jive Bunny covered Collapsed Lung.

Spotify page for Jive Bunny's Favourite Football Anthems.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 22/09/2026

Tuesday.

High Griffiths looking angry. I think in The Bargee, but may be wrong.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 21/09/2026

"Now, I've called you all here to the big ITV Sport Meeting Room to discuss the title sequence for our own version of Soccer Saturday and Final Score. It's all about football scores, as they happen. Any ideas?" "Cyberpunk VR Ironside?" "Nailed it."

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 21/09/2026

(I'm even prepared to go back and correct the sloppy errors I leave in bits I've just written and not proof-read before pasting screengrabs on BlueSky.)

Corrected spelling of some footnotes from earlier.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 21/09/2026

Still ploughing through the book version of blog series The Most-Broadcast BBC (etc). Not far off finishing (tidying up, updating bits, reviewing data), but unsure if I stick with self-publishing to get it out for BBC TV's 90th anniversary, or (given the time spent on it) actually seek a publisher.

Bottom of a page in Word: three footnotes and a wordcount.
I’m assuming it was a big money. It might just have been a load of straw and a new saddle.
Though at least it saw off ITV’s The Goal Rush (2001-2003) without much trouble.
And not, as several letter writers to the Radio Times thought back in those early years, this “black and white hat”. His hat wasn’t remotely black and white, but it’s probably fair to suggest those viewers had yet to upgrade to colour television sets.
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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 21/09/2026

My favourite bit is one I've saved to photos, because on BlueSky you know it's going to come in handy occasionally.

Robert Webb saying "And people call us smug!" with a big smug grin on his face.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 19/09/2026

Lovely stuff.

Radio Times article: "It Might Be A Giggle, says Tony Hancock" followed by 600 words on the new series of Hancock's Half Hour.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 18/09/2026

Ditto! (It's a lot cheaper than buying them.)

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 18/09/2026

Now I know it exists, I can scour charity shops for one. It'd go well with our Vincent Price Hangman.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 17/09/2026

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 16/09/2026

I'm saying Lemmy in underrated BBC-era Comic Strip two-parter South Atlantic Raiders, where he's basically a live-action one-man Gorillaz prototype.

Lemmy as Argentinian wrong 'un Rico, doing a grin to camera.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 15/09/2026

French film Taxi, which is already basically Crazy Taxi.

John Cleese as the Frenchman from Monty Python and the Holy Grail saying "I told him we've already got one".

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 12/09/2026

Apparently they've cast the new #JamesBond

Charles Hawtrey about to get a tan on the beach

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 12/09/2026

He's been! He's been! German Snack Food Santa has been!

Bags of Oktoberfest Peanut Ouffs and Paprika Potato Sticks from Aldi

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 12/09/2026

Imagine that - being able to 'download' a whole song as an 'MP3' off the 'internet' in just half an hour. (The Times, Fri 28 July 2000)

BESPOKE CDs AT A PRICE TO SUIT: "NAPSTER may be closing to - day , but when The Times tried the filesharing system yester - d a y there were more than 700,000 tracks available to download. Using Napster is very sim - ple . First download the free program from the Napster website, www.napster.com. Run it, and the Napster sys - tem installs itself and uses your Internet connection to connect to a master server. If you already have any MP3 files — music compressed into very small computer files with - ou t losing much sound quali - ty ; it stands for Moving Pic - ture experts group version 2 (audio layer 3) — the program will catalogue them and send that list to the server. Other - wise you are now free to search for the tracks you want. We looked for a wide selec - tion of music: searching for Britney Spears instantly brought back the maximum 100 results. Clicking on the track we wanted initiated the transfer, and half an hour lat - er the track was playing happi - ly on our machine. The obvious pop artistes aside, the music available for download on Napster is surprisingly wide-ranging . Searches for Vera Lynn, Bing Crosby, Stephane Grappelli, Mozart and local favourite Half Man Half Biscuit all came back with CD-quality re - cordings available to acquire. The faster your Internet con - nection , the faster you can download the music, but even with the slowest ordinary phone connection you can bring an entire CD's worth — say 12 tracks — in about two hours if you download them simultaneously: Programs are available, and most new computers can be equipped to put MP3 files on to recordable CDs. A blank CD costs 50p, so even with tele - phone costs you can make your own CD for the price of a pint of beer. No wonder that the music industry is upset."

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 12/09/2026

On the blinks-into-existence-whenever-needed channel ITV Sport Plus, which I'm sure was OnDigital-only:

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 11/09/2026

It's also the 25th anniversary of Liverpool's Champions League debut against Boavista, with the Independent's reporter wondering why fans hadn't flocked to Anfield to watch football on the evening of 11 September 2001.

"If Houllier really did feel satisfied by the scoreline, his main disappointment must have been the surprisingly small gathering of 30,015. The match was admittedly shown live on an obscure digital channel, but maybe the truth is that Liverpool supporters have lost the European habit since the days when the giant trophy regularly rested at Anfield."

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 10/09/2026

Hope your cat's either very well behaved, or that the same company makes something like this for cats:

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 09/09/2026

Made a rare post on Reddit with this image, but seems I'm TOO REALZ for that social network.

"Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/LiverpoolFC"

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 09/09/2026

Innit though, eh? #ChampionsLeague

Badly made infographic: "Man-Made Objects Visible From Space"
The Great Pyramids of Giza
The Kennecott Copper Mine, Utah
The Great Wall of Chins
The Shoulder Stripes on This Season's Adidas Kits

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 08/09/2026

What’s it like inside your head?

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 08/09/2026

Probably my fave compilation for the Spectrum. Possibly only rivalled by The Biz (this one, rather than the also great Sievey-em-up)

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 08/09/2026

Phwoar, eh?

A lovely big 3D box for Taito Coin-Op Hits.

Chase HQ by Ocean in a lovely spinnable 3D box.

A 3D box of X-Out on the Atari ST

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/09/2026

The peak example of this in ...Look is the MASSIVE YACHT sketches, viewed 20 years on it's just a funny bit of whimsy. But if you're old enough to remember the wave of spam phone calls with a recorded Patrick Allen-a-like voice coaxing you into receiving a 'prize', you get the very niche reference.

An eccentric billionaire, trying to give a MASSIVE YACHT to a specially selected recipient on the end of the phone.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/09/2026

It's also striking how it *feels* recent, until you spot things like old computer monitors, laptops, references to Chip & Pin, showing someone photos on a digital camera because smartphones aren't a thing yet. It's a very strange sense of nostalgia that seems to have feel from the collective memory

An office scene featuring a TFT computer monitor with a huuuuge bezel.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/09/2026

DVD cover for Slinger's Day, featuring Bruce Forsyth as a put upon supermarket manager.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 07/09/2026

Monday.

June Whitfield sticking two fingers up

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 04/09/2026

Friday.

Richard Nixon doing a Friday fistpump.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 03/09/2026

:(

"Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country"

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 31/08/2026

Definitely agree here. Not least that ITV Night Time and 4 Later put money and resources behind new, niche programming that went out the other side of midnight. That's utterly unfathomable now. There was a Half Man Half Biscuit gig broadcast on ITV. It's amazing that it's a sentence that can exist.

ITV Late night listings for Wednesday, June 19, 1991. Including at 3.45am: The New Sessions: Half Man Half Biscuit in concert.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 31/08/2026

Even if they just put things like Make Mine Mink on in a late night slot nowadays, that'd at least be something.

Terry-Thomas, Hattie Jacques, Athene Saylor and Billie Whitelaw in a caper involving mink coats.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 31/08/2026

"Wow, if they're showing such a rich range of programmes in 1997, just imagine how good Gold will be in 30 years time, when ten times as many people can watch it."

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 30/08/2026

That feeling when you've had to watch Minions films throughout the school holidays and you start to see them everywhere.

A traffic control object that looks a bit like a Minion.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 29/08/2026

On watching Minions & Monsters at the cinema with the kids, it was hard to refrain from boring them by pointing out all the film references. Especially so when the plane from the Airplane poster cropped up:

The "Magic of Hollywood" tour at the start of Minions and Monsters, featuring models of ET, the police car crash from the Blues Brothers, the boat from Jaws and the knotted plane from Airplane.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 29/08/2026

Aah, you're right. Last broadcast in 2006. That makes more sense, especially as BBC Three skewed older at the time. Can't imagine Three making a sitcom like 15 Storeys High or Grass now. Or admittedly pretty much any sitcom, because they're skint.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 29/08/2026

Nice to see The Smoking Room appearing on iPlayer. Though it being shown on BBC Three is curious. Will the channel's target demo think it's a historical sitcom?

iPlayer screen for The Smoking Room S1E1. Him off Ted Lasso looking shocked about something.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 28/08/2026

Just had a glance at Hansard to see how often GTA has been referenced in the Commons. 47 times since 2001, and there's probably a potential Top Ten video of cringiest "fellow kids" references.

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 27/08/2026

As the GTA6 reveal seems to be going on now, I'm reminded that to play the multiplayer code in the original GTA my flatmate had to borrow his brother's PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse and controller so we could play it in link-up mode. Not really worth the trouble.