iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 02/10/2026

Worth noting here that shortly after Fundamental was released, Numb was played out to 25 million people after an England match, where it worked perfectly. So, obviously, Parlophone waited several months and release a not-as-good single version of it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZBy...

youtube.com

Pet Shop Boys - Numb (England World Cup Version)

YouTube video by NotMarkX

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The House Of Splain @thehouseofsplain.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Don't forget, tomorrow morning at 9am to kick off your weekend... youtu.be/gef6LUf8rmY?...

youtu.be

Is this the worst annual ever printed?

YouTube video by The House Of Splain

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 02/10/2026

What would *really* top all this is if we had a repeat of That Was Then This Is Now, a DEF II documentary on the Boys from 1988 that can't believe they're still going after four years. Luckily, it's on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjSv... #NotTOTP

youtube.com

Pet Shop Boys - That Was Then... This is Now - DEF II - 13th July 1988

YouTube video by VHS Artifacts

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 02/10/2026

And I don't think we're going to be getting 'Winner' in this compilation. A song that would be immeasurably improved had it been about Michael Winner rather than a desperate attempt to cash in on the 2012 Olympics.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 02/10/2026

It's the best policy.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 02/10/2026

Not if you're counting their version of All The Young Dudes.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 01/10/2026

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

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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.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 01/10/2026

This purely exists to confuse VAT inspectors.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 01/10/2026

"Yarr, it be called 'sailing', not a 'sea drive'!" - Blackbeard's first day in a computer literacy class.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 30/09/2026

That's because telly nowadays is mainly bsky.app/profile/brok...

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 28/09/2026

FAO COMEDY SCHOLARS: Can anyone confirm or disprove my vague memory that in the throw-any-idea-at-the-wall era of The Jack Docherty Show on C5, there was at least one new Callum Gilhooley sketch? As advance payment, here's Jack's slightly awkward Vic & Bob interview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXYR...

youtube.com

Reeves & Mortimer on The Jack Docherty Show 1997

YouTube video by Matt price

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 27/09/2026

Blimey. I mean, obviously, you should get at *least* an OBE for this. Marvellous stuff.

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Reheated Pixels @reheatedpixels.com · 27/09/2026

The greatest game on any system, of all time, is Chaos on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. That's just scientific fact. And tonight, I've released a web-browser-based editor for it. Phew.

Edit the graphics of Chaos in your web browser. And spell data. And loads of other things.

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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".

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 27/09/2026

Rewatched Stuff recently, alongside everything else it's so thrillingly *angry*. One closing number has Sayle doing a Noel Cowardesque song that starts with "Posh people can't dance" and ends with suggesting just hanging them all. "Then we'll see the bastards dance!" Not getting that in yer SNL UK.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

Well, *I* think ratings should be the most important measure of quality. For example, the Queen's funeralngot about 20 million viewers, but no second series? Come on, BBC!

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

Problem then is, you've got to deal with slug remains.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

AAAAARGH. In ours, they occasionally lurk just inside kitchen cupboards, so you reach in to pull out a breadboard and unwittingly squish one with your fingers.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

Posted this 90 minutes ago, and nobody has told me off for calling them 'slugs' instead of 'currently unhoused snails'. It's like the media narrative about BlueSky is untrue.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

Well to the side. At least they're making the effort to be seen. Other slugs: raise your game.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

SLUG FACT! Slugs all think that if anything, Jack Whitehall should be on more television programmes.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

ACCIDENTALLY TREAD ON A SNAIL IN YOUR SOCKS: Feel really, really bed for the snail ACCIDENTALLY TREAD ON A SLUG IN YOUR SOCKS: Feel really, really bed for your sock

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 26/09/2026

SNAILS: Fine, honourable creatures Cool shells Okay to pick up Can do funny things in comics SLUGS: Vile, cowardly scum No shells UGH I TOUCHED ONE Get absolutely everywhere. Wish I came downstairs to snails in my kitchen every morning.

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Justin Lewis @whenisbirths.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Obligatory push for my 80s month-by-month book. #totp

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

See, I kind of like Bound 4 Da Reload because it's *authentically* crap, rather than the result of a focus group. If that's makes sense. #TOTP

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

Comes to something when you're wishing The Bloodhound Gang would turn up to add a bit of class. #TOTP

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

Sending Scooch to represent us in Eurovision is like the FA picking Jossy's Giants to play in the Champions League #TOTP

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

American record company executives after Baby One More Time became a hit: "People like them, let's make more of them." #TOTP

static.klipy.com

Alan Partridge Leaning on Car

ALT: Alan Partridge Leaning on Car

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

Lolly: CBreetnies Spears sod it send post #TOTP

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

Lolly: The Britney we have at home #TOTP

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 25/09/2026

The Kevin and Perry sketches >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Being kicked in the face >>>>>>>>>>>>> the Kevin and Perry film #TOTP

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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.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 24/09/2026

I probably should have put Mario Odyssey in mine, but I'm treating Mario and GTA games as a given, like The Works of Shakespeare and The Bible in Desert Island Discs.

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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).

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Steve Williams @skillagesteve.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Well, fancy that www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p0...

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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.

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Iain Mew @superchartisland.com · 24/09/2026

This week, my post was on the history of the game Steve Davis Snooker. Featuring David Attenborough, Chas & Dave, Steve Davis and his liking for Galaxian and Holly Herndon, and the fourth different company I've covered to start out with a Frogger clone www.superchartisland.com/steve-davis-snooker

superchartisland.com

Steve Davis Snooker – “Colour wanted”

In 1969, the controller of BBC Two, one David Attenborough, had a bit of an issue. He had a few colour cameras, and a desire to put something unique on his channel that would maximise the use of th…

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 24/09/2026

Oh, that's *marvellous*.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

It already feels like decent-budget first run drama debuting on BBC Two is a relic of a different age. Despite that 'different age' being about six years ago.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

Originally, I started trying to find a particular old site that might have something I need on it, but ended up right down a rabbit hole. An entire folder of links to Nintendo DS sites! And even a few Dreamcast ones.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

It's hard not to feel the BBC are on a hiding to nothing. Ditch a lot of popular stuff to keep the niche content that nobody else does: "You're failing the British public!" Ditch the niche, keep the popular: "You're not doing anything other channels aren't doing already!"

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

It really does show how far the BBC's budget has fallen, does it? Bringing back a channel for 18-24 year olds and then filling it with repeats older than they are. Two Pints of Lager must seem like First of the Summer Wine to the target demographic.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

Lazily flipping through old browser bookmarks (and by "old" I mean "it was still called Guardian Unlimited" old). 95% of my old bookmarks are long dead, but this from 2007 is still marvellously online. MP3s of school bands playing pop and TV theme classics. Lovely stuff. www.ubu.com/outsiders/36...

ubu.com

UbuWeb - 365 Days Project (2007)

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No Score Draws ✍🏻⚽ @noscoredraws.com · 23/09/2026

The venerable @athleticomince.bsky.social is coming to an end, so for old times’ sake here’s our bad doodle of the British Managers Lunch Club. Money money money money money

A very bad drawing of 12 British (although one of them played for and managed Ireland) football managers in poses eerily reminiscent of Da Vinci’s Last Supper

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

That's good to know - I think a few have popped up on YouTube, but it would be nice to check all those performances that were were cruelly denied (because of all the nonces).

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

I respect our British culture. DO YOU?

Geoff Capes holding up SuperGran in an empty athletics stadium

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

I can easily assume, given it was pretty much the only new UKTV channel in the early digital era to make a lot of original content, that they burned through their funding very quickly when there just wasn't enough of an available audience for it.

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Mark GJ @brokentv.uk · 23/09/2026

I reckon we could crowdfund a pirate TV station and show all the Mike Smith episodes of #TOTP each Friday evening. *Even* if there is snooker on.

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