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Mark Owen

@marktowen.bsky.social
127 followers 107 following 414 posts

Writer, editor, photographer. I watch old TV programmes and live in the Isle of Man; these two facts are unconnected.

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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
A sign of those times. In The Champions made a few years earlier, Alexandra Bastedo's character is shown to be a doctor, but constantly referred to as 'Miss Macready'. One episode actually has the line "Miss Macready is a doctor" which you'd think would have highlighted the point.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
From Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation, by Ian Marter, a book first published in 1979. Here, the Doctor has disguised himself as a faithful follower of a ranting posh fascist and has to think of a convincing false name.
Page of text: "As the Guard clattered over to join the others in the semi-circle surrounding the silent and motionless Seeker, Sholakh watched him closely. 'I like initiative,' he smiled. 'What is your name?'

The featureless mask turned towards Sholakh and there was a moment's hesitation. Then the guard saluted again: 'Gammon' he replied.

Again Sholakh frowned, not recognising the name. 'Ah yes, from the Special Reserve Division?' he suggested."
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Delighted to hear that, here in the Isle of Man. 🇮🇲 (Would also be delighted to hear about Blu ray sets for The Champions and Strange Report... 🙂).
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Only two days ago, I mentioned Eva Marie Saint, as an example of a long-lived celebrity. I hope I didn't jinx her, as I still worry I did to Thora Hird. My dad was an extra in Ms Saint's 1966 film, Grand Prix. 42 years later, my mum was an extra in a Zac Efron film, but that's a different story.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
What's troubling about After Henry? Three strong female characters, a non-stereotyped gay character...unless it was a warning for viewers who'd object to those sorts of depictions?
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Just watched the second ever episode of Frasier, from 1993. In one scene, Frasier is horrified to learn that Daphne has ruined the classy, sophisticated coffee that he's bought from.... Starbucks.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Packerrrrrr..."
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The design of the church/cathedral and the relative position of the cricket pitch suggests that this picture is based on Worcestershire County Cricket ground in Worcester.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Somebody at my work once leaned back in his chair and exclaimed "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me!" The guy next to him smiled "Ah! Frankie Howerd, Up Pompeii." I almost swallowed a stapler.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I saw the monochrome photo before I read the post, and I went cold with horror for a moment. Now even more delighted that lovely Floella is happy and celebrating.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
With a separate porter to carry every piece of matching AW-monogrammed luggage.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Mrs Walker would never be up against The Faceless Ones. Can you imagine her lowering herself to fly out of GATWICK?
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
For local reasons, I shall be spinning this hit parade platter on Thursday. There's a wild kind of look to the day.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I can remember rearing this on a coach in Colwyn Bay, on a school trip to North Wales in May 1982. I didn't get the joke.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Postal Workers' Union of the Snake.....A View to a Post Bill...The mail is Due Soon on Monday (that one needs a bit of work)....erm...
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
That is surely the Le Bon bon mot...
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Enjoy gorging your sanhedralite.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have a copy of this edition that Peter Purves signed for me.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Another one: WH recorded a duet with George Michael. GM sang at Live Aid with Paul McCartney, who's best known for appearing in The Chase.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Worms wearing ill-fitting grey or brown curly wigs.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Whitney Houston appeared with Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. Costner also appeared in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, where the Stunt Coordinator was Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker's stunt 'double', Terry Walsh.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Are the Toto Coelho ladies Bob Holness's daughters, or have I misremembered that? 🤔
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I think that's a fair assessment. 23 is so exasperating because so often, it's very nearly "there" but then finds yet another banana skin. It's full of good ideas and duff decisions.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I wonder if they shift much?
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Yes, Mindwarp is one of the very few stories that could benefit from an entirely new ending. It currently has two, and neither of them work. Third time lucky?
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The Blu-ray edition of Vervoids is now probably my favourite CB story. Losing all the trial gubbins allows the story to work. And it's actually a pretty dark tale of mass murder, underneath all the dayglo costumes and Fuzzy Felt sets.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
It's the most frustrating Who There's a thousand points where they could have just made a slight adjustment that would have led to a huge improvement. Point 1: scrap the snoozy trial format.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The epistopic interfaces certainly took their own sweet time adumbrating.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Forty years of The Trial of a Time Lord. Good gracious. #DoctorWho
A woman dressed in white and a man dressed in every colour, sitting in a cheap plywood construction.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Oh, Manx Radio, come ON. The headline 'I'd Rather Chat Than Fleetwood Mac' was right there... www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of...
manxradio.com
VillaGaiety aware of incident
Concertgoer 'shouted at' for speaking before show
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Madge Cranleigh is the most coldly evil villain in all of Doctor Who. She imprisons her disabled son, manipulates his fiancée, causes four deaths including her son, and would have let the TARDIS crew hang. All to maintain her social status with the neighbours. And the Doctor lets her off.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I don't live in the UK, so didn't get the very important-sounding emergency warning from the government there. What exactly was so petrifying about the notification noise that was used? My intrigue levels are rising to 'mild'.
Ruth Madoc as Gladys Pugh in Hi-De-Hi, holding a small glockenspiel to a microphone.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
That's interesting. I've got an antique map of Worcestershire that shows a collection of "islands" of the county off the South-East corner of the main county, in what's otherwise Gloucestershire. I've never found out the story behind these oddities, but I assume they've been tidily absorbed now.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Remembrance - Keff coming atcha from all sides!
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Interesting to see that the writer of the Blu Ray info text for a Doctor Who story set in a warehouse is unfamiliar with Blue Whale, France's largest exporter of apples.
Three men standing in a disused warehouse. A caption reads "For no readily apparent reason, there is an upside-down cartoon illustration of a blue whale in the background!"A cartoon logo of the fruit exporters, Blue Whale. Not surprisingly, it shows a cartoon rendering of the big animal in question.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The Physician played by Ronald Pickup in one of the missing Reign of Terror episodes. His first TV role too, I believe.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
You'd be very welcome here in the Isle of Man, but we seem to have drifted off this map.... 🫢
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I've just discovered your channel after the algorithm brought the War Machines videos into my feed. Really great stuff, looking forward to exploring the back catalogue.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
211 years ago today, the great #Manx social reformer James Brown was born. I wrote a piece about him for gef.im a few years ago. Read all about the gentleman farmers of 19th century Tynwald being brilliantly outplayed by a gobby, fearless, black Scouser. gef.im/news/politic...
gef.im
The Godfather of Manx Democracy
Mark Owen looks back on the life of James Brown, not that one.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
It's 1st August, and some of the blackberries are already black.
A bush with a branch of blackberries hanging down. Some of the berries are green, some are red, and a  few are black.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Exactly this - that not very hits-filled Greatest Hits cassette was my ABBA gateway too. As far as I knew, Bang-a-Boomerang and Another Town, Another Train were as big as Fernando or Waterloo.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Wearing her Ghost Light costume, and dancing to Bros.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
We'll all have to practice our surprised expressions for when the autumn blu ray release is announced. :)
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The Warburtonslords? 🤷‍♀️
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The nerd in me feels that the location would have made it more appropriate to have a War Machine trundling along. Sadly, I imagine that crumbled to papier mache well before 1972.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Success! Paramount success! I've found the story: www.iomtoday.co.im/news/extermi...
iomtoday.co.im
Exterminate! Pothole thwarts Dalek invasion
They fought the Time War and battled the Doctor but now the Daleks have really met their match, Manx roads.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
At the time, I wrote a column for the Indy's sister paper the Isle of Man Examiner, and the editor knew I was a Who fan. He asked me to check a detail in the story of a local replica Dalek, namely that it was a type used in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. I confirmed it was a copy of the TDIOE Supreme.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Strange claim to a little bit of fame: the editor of the Manx Independent asked me to fact-check a Dalek-related detail before this story was published. I was happy to confirm it was all correct.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Planet of Fire has pricy overseas filming giving it a unique feel, the former biggest TV star in the country as main guest, brings in a new companion, writes out two more (one of them mercy-killed by the Doctor) and teases the idea that The Master's gone. It should be huge - but just slips idly by.
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Mark Owen @marktowen.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Don't think of this as a belated birthday greeting - think of it as a birthday extension! :)
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