> End of line.
Well, lovely readers. This is it. End of the line.
After 32 regular episodes – and 20 Thumbcast Extras and special shows – we’ve reached the end of the road at Thumbcast Towers.
It’s been a blast, but we’re all talked out for now. And to be honest, 32 episodes is probably about 31 more than we ever thought the show would run for.
So, it’s time to power down the atomic batteries, and stop loading speed into the turbines.
We’re going to record one last episode of the Thumbcast – our final farewell to the surprisingly large number of you who’ve listened to the show over the last 30 months. It may well involve us drinking a lot, so be warned.
The episodes will remain up on iTunes for anyone who stumbles across them, and the website will be updated until the final episode is uploaded, then be archived here for all to read and enjoy.
And no doubt we’ll be back with some other crazy scheme in the future…
It’s been a blast doing the show, and thanks to everyone who’s been a part of it in whatever way – big or small. We love you all. Even Rich Johnston…
Revealed: The second wave of Before Watchmen books coming this year
In a Thumbcast exclusive, we can reveal the second wave of Before Watchmen titles coming later this year.
Bubastis is a four-part story looking at the origins of Ozymandias’ faithful genetically engineered supercat. Subtitled The Lynx Effect, it will tell of how Adrian Veidt’s life was saved from a hoard of rampaging pheromonal women by the sacrifice of Bubastis’ mother, leading to Veidt growing and nurturing the supercat in her honour.
Psychic Squid is a six-part story telling of the life and adventures of the giant celaphopod which destroys New York and inadvertently brings about world peace before the traumatic trip across the dimensions. A crime fighter in its own dimension, the true origins of OctoPsych and his plucky empathic langoustine sidekick The Shrimp will leave you in tears.
Moloch: The Vegas Years is a one-shot which tells how pointy-eared supervillain Edgar Jacobi turned to a life of crime after being driven out of his successful show at the Palms by David Copperfield, and the terrible revenge he inflicted on the hairy-chested gitwizard.
All three titles will be in bound with old rope special editions later in the Fall.
“A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall…”
So genre darling and man of a million cult TV roles Mark Sheppard has been announced as the latest name for the BBC’s official Doctor Who convention later this year. You know, the one that repeats itself like an unwelcome belch the next day.
And this is the quote that the BBC’s press release ascribes to Sheppard.
“I grew up watching Doctor Who, and the fans are a huge part of what really makes the show so very special. I can’t wait to come back to Cardiff for this unprecedented behind-the-scenes event – a unique chance for fans to meet the amazing people responsible for so much of the show we all love and get to experience their talent and creativity in a totally new way”
For fuck’s sake, BBC. If you’re going to invent PR quotes for someone, at least make them sound like a human being said them. ”Unprecedented behind-the-scenes event”? ”Experience their talent and creativity”?
Phrases unlikely to be heard in human speech outside the cocaine-flecked meeting rooms of west London PR agencies who couldn’t pick Mark Sheppard out of a line-up. The only thing missing from that quote is some reference to ‘synergy between fans and creators’.
Doctor Who. Marketed by a bunch of joyless fuckknuckles, ladies and gentlemen.
Is It The End? – A One Season Wonder
So this is the end. The Thumbcast is about to be consigned to the big dustbin in the sky. We’ve watched some old TV, had some laughs, bored you to death with odes to long dead TV shows…
I was going to cover ‘Is It Bill Bailey?’ for this edition of One Season Wonder but I’m not going to now. I’m not going to tell you how it was made in 1998 by BBC Scotland and featured the incredibly talented team of Bill Bailey, Simon Pegg, and Edgar Wright. I’m not going to tell you how it was broadcast at 11.15pm on a Friday night when its main audience would be lying drunk in ditches or dancing to bad indie pop in a dingy, sweaty club. I’m not going to moan about the fact that ‘Is It Bill Bailey?’ has never been repeated, meaning that all my referrals to this show are only understood by me and a couple of close friends.
I’m not going to tell you how ‘Is It Bill Bailey?’ used a similar format to ‘Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle’ with Bill performing stand up and music for his studio audience while cutting to sketches filmed in the wilds of Scotland and pub car parks. I’m not going to mention Bill’s musical routines which are now old bits from his earlier routines but at the time were original and oh so very funny. I won’t mention that the theme tune is an instrumental version of Bailey’s ‘Human Slaves in an Insect Nation’ or how I still hum it and remember the tune to this day.
I’m not going to moan about the lack of a DVD release of ‘Is It Bill Bailey?’ despite the fact that it would obviously sell healthy numbers, featuring as it does a very succesful touring comedian, and two of the Pegg-Frost-Wright Triumvirate of Doom. I’m not going to moan on and on about the lack of a DVD despite the fact that if you bunged the creators involved a few quid, they would no doubt create an amazing set of extras for the DVD.
Instead I will point you toward the entire show, available for free on YouTube (until some pencil pusher at the BBC [who I imagine looks likes Tim McInnerny as Captain Darling from Blackadder Goes Forth] has it taken down):
So yeah, instead of writing about ‘Is It Bill Bailey?’ I’m going to look back at the past instalments of One Season Wonder and reminisce about the dearly departed…
What? There’s a 500 word limit? Really? And I’m wasting it now by writing this bit?
So I can’t write about how I’d like to thank Iain and Craig for letting me mess up the site with my self-indulgent twaddle?
Well, can I at least plug my own blog where I’ll be posting more One Season Wonders?
Okay, it’s Snark and Fury and it’s here http://snarkandfury.blogspot.com/
Goodbye everyone, I hope I’ll be seeing you all again soon.
Shit, that was 501.