Today is another anniversary. Again just about inescapable if you’ve been near any BBC outlet the past week or so.

You wait 50 years for an anniversary and then two come along at once….

On 23^rd November 1963 a strange, spooky TV programme with a first episode entitled An Unearthly Child appeared on BBC 1.

The programme was of course Doctor Who.

On Thu, 21/11/13, BBC 2 showed a good drama about its genesis, An Adventure in Space and Time. It’s on the iPlayer here.

The BBC has got a bit of a cheek calling it the longest running TV programme, though, considering they axed it for years after Sylvester McCoy’s run finished – apart from the Paul McGann one-off.

For any nostalgia freaks here are all the different title sequences.

I remember when The Man From U.N.C.L.E. first started it was broadcast in the UK on BBC 1 on a Thursday night at 8 pm. That meant it was a quick rush home from choir practice, which itself followed straight on from my piano lessons. Thursday nights were busy then.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. theme tune is very hard to recall. It always gets overwhelmed, at least in my head and also in those of other people of my acquaintance, by the one for Mission Impossible – a show which took over that Thursday night slot from The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The first episode’s opening with explanatory introduction:-

Later colour version, with altered arrangement:-

If you take a look at this (apparently non-embeddable*) video of BBC 1’s Last Tango In Halifax (broadcast on 4/12/12) from just before 45 minutes in – the really approprate bit is from 46:40 to 47:00 – you’ll hear a laugh out loud summation of Mr Irresponsible, aka David Cameron.

It was all the more surprising to see and hear this sort of thing in an otherwise uncontroversial piece of cosy prime time TV.

* Edited to add:- I’ve found the embed code now, so here it is.

Last Saturday the good lady and I went to the B2B Edinburgh Antiques and Collectors Fair held in the Royal Highland Centre Ingliston (thought I’d give them the full puff.)

Occasionally we had to dodge the cameras filming BBC 1’s Bargain Hunt.

One of the stalls had a lot of deco stuff including some unusual glass cabinets.

The nearer one is tall. It had empty flower pots in it suggesting that it might be intended as a terrarium. (Spot the Bargain Hunt crew’s microphone boom in the photo’s background.)

The further pair were the image of each other and very deco, having curved edges at one end and an off centre towered part with mirrored sides.

These had gravel in the bottom so may be intended to be terraria as well. They’re a bit large for anywhere but a greenhouse I’d have thought. Our greenhouse is well stocked and we wouldn’t have room elsewhere for anything like them.

I have to say I didn’t see much else to pique my interest so didn’t buy anything all day. (The good lady did, though.)

The next such Fair at Ingliston is in February (12^th and 13^th.)

I was watching Country Tracks on BBC 1 this morning – well it was on and I was in the same room.

They were doing what might as well have been an episode of Coast; from Liverpool to Morecambe – with a diversion up the Manchester Ship Canal – taking in along the way Antony Gormley‘s statues on Crosby Beach, and Blackpool.

A lot of the programme consisted of clips shown on previous BBC shows. The introduction to Morecambe was an extract from a 2006 edition of Coast which I remember well as it alerted me to the refurbishment of the Midland Hotel which I looked at last year and Big Rab has photographed recently.

The show is on the BBC iPlayer. For how long I don’t know. (The content wasn’t working when I tried though. The relevant bit will be towards the end.) For a programme called Country Tracks it spent a lot of time in cities and towns this week.

The presenter got to stay the night in the hotel and we saw several shots of the inside and the Eric Gill artworks.

By a curious coincidence yesterday’s Guardian Review (I only get round to reading that bit on a Sunday) had an article about another English sea-side Art Deco extravagance, Marine Court, St Leonards, whose structure is modelled on the liner RMS Queen Mary. Marine Court opened just in time to be made a bit of a white elephant by the Second World War. It’s quite stunning.