Tag: sci-fi

Broadcast From the Future, c.1991

~ UnidentifiedWeirdTV ~ Leave a comment

We have a new UWTV memory here, sent in by Gluben, one of our readers.

So over to Gluben…

“Okay, this one is pretty obscure, but this was similar to an unsettling ad break from 1989.

“To give people some background, in 1989, First Direct bank launched with a strange advert that literally “interrupted” an ad for Audi (all pre-arranged with Audi) and aired on all ITV regions and Channel 4 at the same time. The ad by advertising agency HHCL claimed to be a broadcast from the future in the year 2010 and was celebrating the 21st anniversary of the launch of First Direct before it returned viewers to their regular programming. It was only ever shown once:

“It was very daring and it was followed by a second pair of adverts that aired during the week, introduced by actress Charlotte Rampling, with different viewpoints of First Direct, a bank that had no branches. The “positive” ad (starring Jeremy Swift in a white suit miming a gospel song) aired on ITV, while the “negative” ad (starring Steve Punt in a black suit miming a blues song) aired on Channel 4:

“Anyway, when the first ad was reposted on YouTube, it brought about a comment relating to something similar. [The commenter] claimed that there was another interruption of a commercial break during a showing of Romancing the Stone on ITV (Central in their region). It occurred in 1991, but was nothing like that one and definitely wasn’t made by a company selling a product.

“For anyone familiar with the book Bringers of the Dawn and the subsequent Pleiadians videos that have been posted online, it was similar in content but abridged and compressed into about 60 seconds. On screen, there appeared a spinning galaxy and possible fleeting images of our planet (their memory was rusty on some details), while the message was spoken by an unseen soft-voiced woman. The gist of what she said is as follows: ‘We have come from your future to let you know that Earth will soon be entering a special phase in its evolution, whereby there will be an opportunity to raise the planetary frequency.’ He definitely remembers a period of 20 years being mentioned, along with the recommendation that we work on increasing our positive vibes, or words to that effect. At the end, she said something like ‘You will now be returned to your regular viewing’ and then it finished.

“He only heard of one other person who’d apparently mentioned it (a friend of a friend, his name is Richard Forbes and he lived in Dudley), although he never got to ask them in person, and was surprised to not find anything reported in the media about it. He’s certain of the year, because he remembers talking to a couple of mates the next day when he met them on his dinner break, and he was only in that particular job throughout 1991.

“I’ve tried my best to locate the ad on the History of Advertising Trust (HAT) website but couldn’t find anything close to matching, and they also emailed back saying they had nothing in their records matching. I’ve also looked through the British Newspaper archive for regional TV listings and there’s absolutely none for Romancing the Stone for ITV or Channel 4 in 1991 in the whole of the UK, let alone the Central region; only in Ireland, but the person is adamant of both the year and the film. He reckons it aired on a Sunday between about 7pm and 10pm and was definitely not in the summer months, so possibly February to April or September to November.

“That’s all we’ve got to narrow it down, so any help finding the ‘advert’ in question, or what it was about, would be greatly appreciated.”

Does anyone else recall seeing this? If so, please respond below or drop us an email and let us know!

The Green-Eyed Monster – One-off CITV Drama

~ UnidentifiedWeirdTV ~ Leave a comment

There were a lot of paranormal and sci-fi dramas on children’s TV throughout the 70s-90s. Many of these have strong cult followings all these decades on. But one that I rarely ever see anyone else mention – perhaps because it was a one-off as opposed to a series – is The Green-Eyed Monster, shown on Children’s ITV in 1989.

Technically this isn’t an ‘unidentified’ show, but it’s obscure and unknown enough to justify a post here. From my recollection, this one-off drama was shown around September 1989 – I may be wrong about the month but I seem to recall it being around that time of year. It was advertized a lot in trailers on CITV in the weeks leading up to its airing, so never one to miss a good paranormal show, I watched it…

The plot was about a young girl, who an internet search reveals was called Cora and was played by Joanne Leigh-Palmer. Cora possessed a strange psychic ability that caused her eyes to literally light up green whenever she became jealous – and whenever her eyes lit up, something bad would happen to the person she was jealous of. The main plot was about Cora’s mother having a baby, and this triggered Cora’s jealousy as up until then, she had been an only child and had always been the centre of attention.

Cue lots of strange and frightening things happening whenever her jealousy was aroused. I remember very few details so recollections from here are only vague… but I think there was one scene at a friend’s birthday party. According to one person I’ve found who recalls it, Cora made glass crack with her mind. And there was another scene where Cora was stood in line with a load of kids by a swimming pool, I think during a lesson of some sort (for some reason I seem to remember all the kids singing “Why are we waiting”) and Cora’s eyes lit up, and this caused the teacher to fall into the pool. The teacher then yelled at the girl stood behind her, accusing her of pushing her in – but she hadn’t, it was Cora’s psychic powers that did it. The show culminated in Cora’s house being set on fire, presumably due to her jealousy of the baby, and as the family stood outside the house as the fire brigade arrived, the camera closed in on the baby’s eyes turning green, indicating the baby had the same powers. That’s where it ended…

Although my memories are pretty vague, I seem to recall it being quite dark and freaky for a Children’s ITV show; or at least it struck my 7-year-old mind as being so. Surprisingly there seems to be next to nothing about it online – just this short article on the BFI website. The most detailed info I’ve found is this extract from Look-In, posted by someone on the Weird British TV Memories (70s-90s) group on Facebook:

The Green-Eyed Monster – excerpt from Look-In, 1989

Apparently it was scripted by Paula Milne, one of the UK’s most accomplished screenwriters – but other than the limited information online The Green-Eyed Monster seems to have completely vanished into obscurity.

On the subject of recurring tropes in sci-fi fiction, it’s probably worth me noting that this one-off drama seemed to have striking similarities with a very disturbing story I read as a child in a book of children’s sci-fi stories in the primary school I went to. It was a story about a boy called Simon who had strange psychic powers that meant he could cause things to happen just by thinking about them. Simon had just moved to a new neighbourhood, where he befriended the boy who was narrating the story – and at first the kids found Simon fun to have around, using his powers to help them get free ice creams, and get out of a scrape with the local bully. But later on, things turned nastier as Simon used his powers to do outright evil things, going as far as killing his teacher by causing him to have a car crash, while at home he used his powers to terrorize his parents, who lived in fear of him. Simon’s mother had just had a baby girl, and Simon was jealous of her and tried to use his powers to kill her – but the baby turned out to have the same powers and used them on Simon, causing him to levitate and hurl around the room, smashing into walls until he was dead. The story ended with Simon’s mother leaning over the baby’s cot, whispering “Oh no, not her as well…” (UPDATE: This story has now been identified and found – it’s “Sinful Simon” by John Wagner of 2000AD fame, published in the 1982 book Exciting Stories of Fantasy and the Future)

II’m digressing a bit by mentioning the above story here, but it’s worth noting the striking similarity to The Green-Eyed Monster, and I wonder if this story may have been its inspiration, or perhaps more likely, they may share a common inspiration.

Either way, I’ve found a small number of people who remember The Green-Eyed Monster and were freaked out by it as kids, and so naturally, would love to see it again… can we rescue this lost curiosity of 80s kids’ sci-fi from complete obscurity?

If you remember The Green-Eyed Monster or have any more detailed recollections… or better still, have a copy of it anywhere… then please drop us an email! And if not, feel free to share this blog post in the hope of reaching someone who can help!

UPDATE – 25/05/25 – It has been a pleasure to hear from Joanne Savory, who appeared as an extra in The Green-Eyed Monster as a child. Joanne tells us:

“The Swimming Pool Scene was filmed at Burntwood School, London, SW17 where I was a pupil.

My friends and I were lucky enough to appear a few times and I’m one of the girls swimming in the pool scene.

My friend and I were given strict instructions to swim really slowly (almost in slow motion) as the girl who played Cora wasn’t a confident swimmer.”

Joanne thinks she may have a copy of the show taped from the TV somewhere, so let’s hope she can reunite us with this long-lost TV obscurity – thanks Joanne for getting in touch!