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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That reminds me of this little bit of silliness from a while ago. Just a minor enhancement to the soundtrack to fix that scene’s disappointing gunshot effect. Sound on!

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

How many times have we all asked the question "what was the last company to advertise a game in Amiga Power magazine?" Well today, that question is finally answered in a new blog post. It was Power Computing. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/09/powe... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #Amiga #AtariST

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Power Computing

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Paul Hayes @paul-hayes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

70 years ago today, the BBC showed a recording of the CBC's Flight into Danger - later remade as the film Airplane!, and one of the important steps on the way to the creation of #DoctorWho. To celebrate, here's a much longer edit of my audio documentary telling Flight into Danger's story:

youtube.com

Flight into Danger - The Story of the Original Airplane! (an audio documentary)

YouTube video by Paul Hayes

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Really enjoying 'Rooms' on TPTV. Each pair of episodes is a 50 minute studio play cut in half. Some lovely contained character portraits. Today's features Russell Hunter as another Lonely-esque downtrodden littleman.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Pleased to see Channel 5's Play for Today reboot back for a new series next Friday. I wasn't aware it was due so soon.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

After the last one, I looked again at the TV pages of the Sunday Post to see what else they had to say about #DoctorWho and I found this gem. Anyone fancy a guess as to which episode this complaint is about, or indeed what had got into Katy Manning?

A newspaper clipping in which a letter-writer complains that an episode of Dr Who was spoiled by Katy Manning’s moaning and groaning, and asks ‘What on earth has got into her?’

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

For those who like their legacy and physical media, I can recommend this lovely little documentary about an absolutely huge home-taping project in 1980s Northern Ireland. I say ‘lovely’, but you can expect some difficult themes too. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

bbc.co.uk

Illuminated - The Grand North Atlantic Home Video Archive - BBC Sounds

Séamas O'Reilly unravels the mystery of his father's unusual film archive.

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Richard Bignell @nothinglane.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Now that the Blake's 7 series 3 Blu-ray Collection has been announced, here's what will be included in the PDF Archive on this release. Enjoy!

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Just caught up with the BBC4 Penda's Fen repeat. I haven't seen it since it was on a grotty multi-generation VHS half a lifetime ago. I didn't understand it then but hoped I would this time, watching a nice clean copy. I didn't. But it looks lovely and I'm glad such strange and beguiling TV exists.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A new blog post about Hasbro Interactive. They were a link in the long chain of the story of Atari, MicroProse, Telecomsoft and Firebird, and Beyond Software. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/09/hasb... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #PlayStation #PCGaming

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Hasbro Interactive

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I’ve come across an early newspaper review of #DoctorWho. Well, a comment really (below), from Alan Stewart’s television column in the Sunday Post. It’s from 1963 – anyone care to guess which episode he’s responding to before I tell you?

Newspaper clipping reading: ‘DR WHO – I’ll make comment just as soon as I stop laughing.’

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Random observation. I noticed today that Interflora's full name is Inferflora British Unit, which makes them sound a touch more paramilitary than I expected.

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Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Shrugging and moving on. I probably want a town square, and a guillotine. But first I want them to do the clever banking stuff, all the leveraged jiggery pokery, and give the money back. On principle. Then the guillotine.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

What a brilliant letter. And I am absolutely stealing the phrase: "I admire the sincerity of it. Or whatever is happening in place of sincerity." I've got so many uses for that...

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

And the paperback is now back in stock too. Get it here: obversebooks.co.uk/product/82-t...

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

A new blog post about the UK arm of MicroProse. Includes discussion about anti-American attitudes, the West German practice of Indexing, and the worst photograph taken for this blog. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/08/micr... #Amstrad #C64 #ZXSpectrum #AtariST #Amiga #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

MicroProse

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I’ve just written a whole paragraph about a Kylie Minogue song in my book about a 1980s Doctor Who story. I didn’t expect that to be one of the outcomes when I started my research.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A new blog post about RETRO GAMER magazine, their history and their various offices and publishers. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/08/retr... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Retro Gamer

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Simon Guerrier @0tralala.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

On @oliver-wake.bsky.social’s very good @blackarchive.co.uk book on the first Dalek story: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2026/08/blac...

0tralala.blogspot.com

Black Archive: The Daleks, by Oliver Wake

The blog of writer and producer Simon Guerrier

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Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Steal from one thesis = plagiarism Steal from every single thesis ever written, including mine = business model

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Whoever compiled the credits for the US omnibus version of Remembrance of the Daleks clearly didn’t spot the ‘Roy Tromelly’ gag.

A screengrab of credits for the Doctor Who story Remembrance of the Daleks. There are credits for Roy Tromelly as the Emperor Dalek and Terry Molloy as Davros. In case you are unaware, Roy Tromelly was Terry Molloy (it’s an anagram). The idea was to hide the fact that Davros was inside the Emperor Dalek, which would have been obvious if Molloy had been credited, in the episode before the one featuring that revelation. There is no need of the subterfuge in an omnibus version of the story.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

One copy of the paperback left! See below for why you should buy it.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Today I learned that Hampstead Heath has its own police force. But I don't really understand why.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I start writing about Doctor Who but it always ends up with me talking about Nazis.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

A weekend push for this new blog article about Core Design and their various offices around Derby. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/08/core... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #PlayStation

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Core Design

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I'm watching the Dr Who episode Sleep No More, which, I've just (re)discovered, begins with Reece Shearsmith warning the audience "you can't unsee this". Which feels ironic as I definitely saw it when it went out but it's entirely disappeared from my memory.

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Matt Newton @mattjnewton.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Spotted this establishment in Bremen in Germany. Perhaps he didn't become a car salesman after leaving UNIT...

The sign for a restaurant called John Benton

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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

here's a full breakdown of what's going on & where we're at www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

liberalcurrents.com

The End of Trans Rights in the UK Is the Start of Democratic Collapse

It's never just one minority.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

A trip to Derby for a new blog post about Core Design, creators of Tomb Raider. Thanks to @retrohistories.bsky.social for suggesting this article. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/08/core... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #PlayStation

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Core Design

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Simon Guerrier @0tralala.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Long post on the brilliant history of interwar television Magic Rays of Light by @illuminations.bsky.social: 0tralala.blogspot.com/2026/08/magi...

0tralala.blogspot.com

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I see the Labour vote was nearly double that of Reform in Manchester. Cue tomorrow's opinion pieces explaining how this is another great victory for Reform.

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Space Fall: A Blake's 7 Podcast @spacefallb7.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Our episode on Ultraworld is out We're now deep into Series C, with another first time writer for the show... so what did we make of it? Available on your podcast app, or directly here: www.podbean.com/eas/pb-yxrpd...

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Gav Rymill @themindrobber.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

🧂💥NEW VIDEO💥🧂 Terry Nation’s original Master Plan: The first draft of Devil’s Planet, and lost storyline ideas. Full breakdown and comparison between Nation’s script and Tosh’s rewrite. Watch now! (Link Below 👇🏻)

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Here’s an interview with William Hartnell early into #DoctorWho. I say interview but it’s barely got any direct quotations. A nice curio though from when the show was just taking off as a major success (The Daleks had finished the previous Saturday). From the Tunbridge Wells Courier, 7 February ‘64.

A monochrome newspaper clipping headed: ‘Dr Who: He evades the Daleks at weekends’. It’s a brief, and frankly not very interesting, news story about William Hartnell going shopping in Tunbridge Wells.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Last night the BBC4 continuity announcer introduced Funeral in Berlin with reference to Michael Caine's "eponymous" spy Harry Palmer. Which makes no sense at all. I wonder what meaning they were trying to convey.

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Paul Dykes @paulodykes.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It also shows one of the locations of police box R28, in operation from 1934–1970.

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Obverse Books @obversebooks.co.uk · 30/07/2026

A lovely closing summary from an excellent review of Ollie Wake's Black Archive on THE DALEKS in Celestial Toyroom #557. Available in paperback and ebook at obversebooks.co.uk/product/82-t...

I've watched this adventure more times than I can count, but Wake's book made me want to watch it all over again. When I do, I know that I will enjoy it all the more because I have now read this book.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

An update to the Graftgold article in which I finally get a photo of their original office in Witham. I am no longer cloaked in shame from my 2022 mistake. What a time to be alive! whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2022/02/graf... #Amstrad #C64 #ZXSpectrum #AtariST #Amiga #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Graftgold

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

oh god, has my name come up in the Prime Minister lottery?

An envelope branded House of Commons with my name visible in the address window

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NetworkOnAir @networkonair.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Do not adjust your set! Network returns - a new company with a mission to celebrate the best of classic British TV and film.

networkonair.com

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Contemporary perspectives on early #DoctorWho are always interesting. Here reviewer Peter Quince suggests that on the evidence of its second ever episode the series is “now lost and gone for ever”, despite the promise of its first. Harsh words. From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 7 December 1963.

A newspaper cutting reviewing the second of episode of Dr Who and the Tribe of Gum. The reviewer is happy to accept the time travelling police box but not cave people arguing about fire. He concludes as detailed in the post.

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I recently downloaded a load of newspaper cuttings about Rudolph Cartier's Stalingrad. Reading through them now I find one review goes on to cover An Unearthly Child. Quite the contrast but a nice unexpected find.

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Sham Mountebank @shammountebank.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Gizmondo. A new blog post about the worst selling console ever (so far). whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/07/gizm... #Retrogames #Retrogaming #Gizmondo

whereweretheynow.blogspot.com

Gizmondo Europe

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Oliver Wake @oliver-wake.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I will be happy to be corrected but I assume that one or both of those images is AI-generated. Which is ironic for an event claiming to celebrate photography, the art of capturing actuality.

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