The BMX Craze...

Early days - above and below, a two page advertisement featured in "Look-In" magazine, 13/12/1980.

THE RACE IS ON

BMX is the bike-racing sport that has swept across America. The action-packed event that's tougher, faster and more exciting than anything you've ever seen before.

Now Puch Murray and Halfords bring BMX to Britain. And there's never been a better time to take off with a brand-new sport.

Bicycle Motocross is no place for toy bikes or tame riding. You race on a dirt-track downhill course that really separates the men from the boys.

On the left [ABOVE] is an artist's impression of a typical BMX track. It can have as many jumps, bends, hairpins and fast straights as you want.

Thunder down the straights, slam round the bends.

Fly over hair-raising jumps at full speed.

It's a real test of your skill and courage.

No other bike ride has the thrills of BMX.

ONLY THE BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH

If you thought any old bike would do for Bicycle Motocross you'd be wrong. Because most BMX courses are enough to shake any ordinary bike to bits.

When you race a motocross course you need a bike that's really hot.

That's why Puch Murray bikes are made for the job. Prices start from £79.95 for the 5310 model shown here. They have 20" wheels with track-grabbing racing tyres.

Cross braced handlebars for extra strength.

Even frames and forks are specially designed for competition riding.

And you'll find that every model is as tough as steel and lightening quick.

ALL GEARED UP

BMX is a hard sport. And a BMX course is no place to take risks.

That's why the top track stars always wear crash helmets and protective clothing when they're racing.

When you get your bike, make absolutely sure you've got the gear to go with it.

Not only will you look good, you'll be a whole lot safer too. There's trousers at £8.95, Jerseys at £7.45, Helmets at 12.50 and protect your bike with Pad sets at £4.15.

We're sure you'll agree. If you're going to win at BMX it's best to win in style.

STAY ONE JUMP AHEAD

Don't miss out on the incredible BMX action.

Get into Bicycle Motocross today.

Nobody knows more about BMX and the range of Puch Murray bikes than your local branch of Halfords. You'll find they're experts. They'll tell you which BMX bike is best for you.

And who knows, if you've got what it takes, you could soon be Britain's first BMX star.

DAREDEVIL ON PEDALS 

Daily Star, 19/5/1983

Britain's top motor-cycle rider, Eddie Kidd, has switched to pedal power... on a BMX bike.

And after his first crack at the fast-growing kids' sport, daredevil Eddie said: "It's a whole lot of fun."

He was put through his paces by five-year-old [is this a printing error?] David Maw, one of the country's most promising BMX starlets.

BMX stands for Bicycle Moto-cross, and youngsters race round obstacle courses on special rough-rider bikes.

Crash helmets are a must and so is a good sense of balance.

The craze has already swept the United States and is now taking off in a big way here too.

David, of Barnetby le Wold, South Humberside, has competed in five national events so far this season - and won them all.

But he found that Eddie could teach him a few tricks when it comes to leaping off ramps.

Said David: "Motorbikes or BMX, I think Eddie is the greatest in the world."

ET merchandise, including a BMX, on sale in the Brian Mills spring and summer mail order catalogue, 1983.

More from the Brian Mills spring and summer 1983 catalogue - some very excellent Raleigh Burners.

The bikes weren't exactly cheap in that day and age, thank heavens for mail order catalogues - a great way to spread the cost!

The BMX craze swept the country like wildfire.

Macho seems a good name for a BMX. I was a bit too old to take part in the craze and preferred Stella Artois, but there were many young lads, teeth firmly gritted, determined not to disgrace themselves by crying after taking a tumble and grazing knees and/or elbows.

From the John Myers Home Shopping catalogue, autumn and winter 1983 - the Burner GS BMX and Burner GX.

If you're a BMX fan, then this site comes highly recommended.

Raleigh BMX 'Aero Burners' - as featured in the Janet Frazer catalogue, autumn/winter 1984/5.

Personal Computer World Magazine, November 1982...

Personal Computer World, November, 1982 - 75p. Personally, I couldn't give a toss about computers in 1982...

They just weren't "happening" round my way. Too expensive. Too complicated. And the Gas and Electricity people were always blaming their computers when domestic utility bills were wrong, so they were obviously bloody unreliable.

And anyway, these things didn't even look like computers. Where were the flashing lights? The knobs and levers? The whirling tape spools? What a swizz...

And nobody I knew even had one of those Atari TV games thingies until 1984. And then I quickly gave up, letting Pac-Man be caught by the ghosties. It was inevitable anyway. Just as it had been on the machine at the local boozer a couple of years earlier.

But in the 1980s we entered the IT age, and many things were happening in the world of computing, whether I was interested or not...

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

16K or 48K RAM...

full-size moving-key keyboard

colour and sound...

high-resolution graphics...

From only £125!
First there was the world-beating Sinclair ZX80. The first personal computer for under £100.
Then the ZX81. With up to 16K RAM available, and the ZX Printer. Giving more power and more flexibility. Together, they've sold over 500,000 so far, to make Sinclair world leaders in personal computing. And the ZX81 remains the ideal low-cost introduction to computing.

Now there's the ZX Spectrum! With up to 48K of RAM. A full-size moving key keyboard. Vivid colour and sound. High resolution graphics. And a low price that's unrivalled.

Professional power - personal computer price!

The ZX Spectrum incorporates all the proven features of the ZX81. But its new 16K BASIC ROM dramatically increases your computing power.

You have access to a range of 8 colours for foreground, background and border, together with a sound generator and high-resolution graphics.

You have the facility to support separate data files.

You have a choice of storage capacities (governed by the amount of RAM). 16K of RAM (which you can uprate later to 48K of RAM) or a massive 48K of RAM.

Yet the price of the Spectrum 16K is an amazing £125! Even the popular 48K version costs only £175!

You may decide to begin with the 16K version. If so, you can still return it later for an upgrade. The cost? Around £60.

Ready to use today, easy to expand tomorrow

Your ZX Spectrum comes with a mains adaptor and all the necessary leads to connect to most cassette recorders and TVs (colour or black and white).

Employing Sinclair BASIC (now used in over 500,000 computers worldwide) the ZX Spectrum comes complete with two manuals which together represent a detailed course in BASIC programming. Whether you're a beginner or a competent programmer, you'll find them both of immense help. Depending on your computer, you'll quickly be moving into the colourful world of ZX Spectrum professional-level computing.

There's no need to stop there. The ZX Printer - available now - is fully compatible with the ZX Spectrum. And later this year there will be Microdrives for massive amounts of extra on-line storage, plus an RS232/network interface board.

Broader Horizons

The BBC Microcomputer System

'Whether your interests lie in business, educational, scientific control or games applications, this system provides a possibility for expansion which is unparalleled in any other machine available at present,' comments Paul Beverley in the July 1982 edition of Personal Computer World.

The BBC Microcomputer can genuinely claim to satisfy the needs of novice and expert alike. It is a fast, powerful system generating high resolution colour graphics and which can synthesise music and speech. The keyboard uses a conventional layout and electric typewriter 'feel'.

You can can connect directly* to cassette recorders, domestic television, video monitor, disc drives, printers (dot matrix and daisy wheel) and paddles. Interfaces include RS423, inter-operable with RS232C equipment, and Centronics. There is an 8-bit user port and 1MHz buffered extension bus for a direct link to Prestel and Teletext adaptors and many other expansion units. The Econet System allows numerous machines to share the use of expensive disc drives and printers.

BASIC is used, but plug-in ROM options will allow instant access to other high level languages (including Pascal, FORTH and LISP) and to word processing software.

A feature of the BBC Microcomputer which has attracted widespread interest is the Tube, a design registered by Acorn Computers. The Tube is unique to the BBC Microcomputer and greatly enhances the expandability of the system by providing, via a high speed data channel for the addition of a second processor. A 3MHz 6502 with 64K of RAM will double processing speed; a Z80 extension will make it fully CP/M** compatible.

The BBC Microcomputer is also at the heart of a massive computer education programme. The government has recommended it for use in both primary and secondary schools. The BBC Computer Literacy Project includes two series of television programmes on the use and applications of computers.

There are two versions of the computer. Model A, at £299, offers 16K of RAM and Model B at £399 has 32K of RAM.

*Model A has a limited range of interfaces but can be upgraded to meet Model B specification.
**CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research

The BBC Microcomputer is designed, produced and distributed in the UK by Acorn Computers Limited.

A few games here...

Spectres for the Speccy -

... more mystery and excitement on your Spectrum as Eddy the electrician tries to thwart the ghosts in the mansion with his secret light generator. (from the developers of 'Spectral Invaders').

Eight quid to you, guv'nor!

There's also the BBC Dragon Quest, and BBC Chess (£11.50), Spacewarp (£9.00), Spaces Pirates (£8.00), Polaris (£5.50), Multifile (£25.00), Backgammon (£8.00), Golf (£5.50), Airlift (£5.50) and Fruit Machine (£5.50).

If you were interested in computers in 1982, but didn't fancy forking out for one, you could always try and win the "NEW GENERATION DRG VICTOR 9000".

The DRG Victor 9000 is a new generation 16 bit micro with the power to rival many minicomputers.

Designed to meet the need for more powerful business applications, its 1.2 MB of floppy disk is expandable to 2.4 MB of floppy disk creating the flexibility to cope easily with longer customer files, company records and word processing.

The Commodore VIC 20 - The best home computer in the world

How to make the best home computer in the world even better.

Peripherals to turn a powerful computer into a super-computer for the professional.

With VIC, you have the finest home computer money can buy. And the more you use it, the more you will ask it to do.

Pretty soon, you'll want to extend VIC's vast potential to the full; and there is a wide range of VIC peripherals to help you do it.

Disk drives, disk-based software, a printer, cassette unit, joysticks, paddles - with these VIC computing becomes total computing: giving you true professional power and capability...

The RP 1600 FLOWRITER

A Daisywheel printer that thinks it's a computer!

The RICOH FLOWRITER is the most intelligent Daisy Wheel printer on the world market. Equipped with an internal micro computer and a large memory it will intelligently handle all printing and word processing operations; hence relieving the host computer for simultaneous use.

The Flowriter is fully compatible with software written for any intelligent printer and is plug compatible with all popular hardware...

Professional microcomputers from only £16 per week!

The new Dragon 32. So well designed, you'll even understand this ad.

If you're already a computer expert, may we refer you to the box of technical specifications displayed opposite.

If you're not, may we refer you to the new Dragon 32 family computer. A computer so easy to understand, you won't understand why all the others seem so difficult.

And the new Dragon 32 costs under £200...

BBC Dragon Quest - an exciting adventure game based on 'Dungeons And Dragons'... by the look of the flag on his front, that's St George in there facing up to his old enemy...

NEC turns 28 years of computer experience to your personal advantage.

It takes a great computer company to make a great personal computer. And from the start, NEC has been a pioneer in computer technology. In fact, we invented the all-semiconductor computer in 1959. Now, hundreds of innovations later, we've made it personal.

We present the PC-8000, a powerful and friendly business tool that can help you get more done in a day than you ever could before...

3.7 million reasons why the Atari Home Computer is something to see. The display screen used with our computers is composed of 192 horizontal lines, each containing 320 dots. Delivering colour and luminosity instructions to each dot for a second requires 3.7 million cycles... a lot of work for the normal 6502 processor.

That's why the Atari computer has equipped its 6502 with its own electronic assistant. It's called ANTIC, and it handles all the display work, leaving the 6502 free to handle the rest. What this means to you is uncompromisingly spectacular display capabilities without loss of computer power needed to carry out the demands of your program.

That's a quality you just don't find in ordinary home computers. And it's one of the reasons some computer experts say that Atari computers are so far ahead of their time...

More from the wondrous world of 1980s computing soon!

Oxo: "Remember Preston?"

TV Times readers voted the Oxo family best 1985 TV ad. Oxo also won in 1986. From the 1950s until the early 1970s, Oxo had "Katie and Phillip", a loving husband and wife, extolling the virtues of their wares. Stay-at-home-wifey Katie was always out to give a meal "man appeal". In 1983, Oxo returned to the homely theme with Lynda Bellingham and Michael Redfern playing Ma and Pa to a teenage brood. These were highly popular ads and ran from 1983 to 1999. 

In the 1980s, Mrs Oxo came over a little suggestive as she served up a meal and asked her hubby if he remembered Preston with a smouldering look on her physog. What 'appened in Preston?! I wondered. 

On second thoughts, don't tell me.

The ads were usually very likeable, but one '90s ad that got right on my wick involved Ma cooking different meals for each member of her family and serving them all up at the same time. As she passed her husband a steaming plateful, she licked her lips provocatively and said: "And for you, Michael, I've got the hots!" Outrageous - knowing from bitter firsthand experience how hard it is to cook ready-made pizza and oven chips, I snorted at the idea of anybody cooking four different meals on one cooker, serving them all up at the same time, and then having the energy to come over all fruity.

Agadoo doo doo...

Good old Black Lace. Try it after a couple of pints! I confess to singing along to this, doing all the movements and having a thoroughly good time more than once. I'm quite happy to confess to this as you don't know me and we're not likely to meet!


All together now - 


"Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple shake the tree
Agadoo doo doo, push pineapple grind coffee..."

Interviewed in 1984, Colin Routh of Black Lace, said:

"Our manager found Superman in Europe. It was a hit there some time back. And one night we were playing in a nightclub and someone came to us and said is Agadoo going to be your next single? We thought it was the name of a disease or something. Anyway, he explained it was a record by the Saragossa Band, made for the people at Club Mediterranean, the holiday firm. It's also been a hit in Germany a couple of times, originally being released in 1967. So we thought it was a good idea to do an up-to-date version of it."

Thanks, lads!


In 1986, Spitting Image took revenge with the Chicken Song.

Shake Me - It's The SnuggleBumms...

Here are some SnuggleBumms, as featured in the spring/summer 1986 Argos catalogue. They had names like Warmly Kid, Poppa-Gently and Momma-Brightly and Snuggle Pets called Bumble and Lucky, and some glowed if you hugged them and some giggled if you shook them.

Lovely. 

Very different from my childhood days when I was lucky if Mum had an old spud to spare for a Mr Potato Head. How I wish I'd been a child in the 1980s!

Mind you, I'm glad I was a teen/twenty-something.

Trouble is, I WANT IT ALL - the full range of 1980s experiences from different age perspectives.

Including some SnuggleBumms.

Wincey Willis

One of my favourite TV celebrities of the 1980s, Wincey (real name Winsome) emerged into the limelight as TV-am weather girl in May 1983, helping to bring warmth and popular appeal to the channel after its starchy start. She had been spotted doing regional forecasts on Tyne Tees Television.

 Wincey had begun her career as a TV weather girl in July 1981. On a visit to Tyne Tees Television, it was suggested that she audition. Wincey protested that she knew nothing about the weather, but was assured that all the details would come from the Newcastle Weather Centre. It was the day before the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer,  and at the audition Wincey was suddenly told that there was no forecast available - an old ploy to see how the person auditioning would cope under pressure. Wincey had been doing mock forecasts for the Royal Wedding street parties that were to be held throughout the Tyne Tees region, and said that, despite the lack of information at her disposal, she knew it was going to be a fine day because her mother's knee hadn't been aching all week! She got the job, and in 1983 came her TV-am role.

Wincey used her fame to promote her passionate interest in animals and nature. 

Before fame, in 1980/81, whilst working on local radio, she had been asked to present a piece about terrapins on regional Tyne Tees Saturday morning children's show Saturday Shake-Up. This was spotted by Granada producer Muriel Young, who asked Wincey to contribute to three programmes of a 1981 children's series called Graham's Ark. In 1982, Wincey got her own series for pre-school children, Wincey's Pets.

TV Times, 4 June, 1982: Wincey's Pets makes its debut.

Having gained national fame at TV-am, Wincey wrote the books It's Raining Cats And Dogs (1986) and Green Days (1990). In 1986, she devised The Weather Game, a board game manufactured by Waddingtons. She also presented other TV-am features, Wincey's Pets, Wincey's Wall and Caring Christmas, before finally leaving the station in 1987.

In the meantime, Wincey had joined innovative '80s series Treasure Hunt as adjudicator, taking her place alongside Kenneth Kendall and Anneka Rice, and remained there until the final series in 1989, when Anneka was replaced by tennis player Annabel Croft.

Wincey also had the great honour of a mention in a sketch on the wonderful Victoria Wood As Seen On TV series, when a character took out a copy of the (entirely fictional) Wincey Willis Book Of Wholemeal Pasta from the local library!

TV Times, May/June 1982: The wonder woman of animal farm. Wincey is pictured in the days before her glorious mullet with Molly the cockatoo. Here's an extract from the article: 

Rags, a large Airedale crossbreed dog was abandoned by his owners in a state of collapse; Suzie, a Papillon, was a wandering bitch with a very matted coat, Black Puss was a farmyard cat about to be drowned; Tucker the kitten was found thrown away in a dustbin inside a plastic bag; Leo and Lucy were stray cats; and Tiddles lived on his wits in a deserted cottage. These are some of the domestic pets belonging to Wincey Willis, presenter of the series Wincey's Pets and weather forecaster for Tyne Tees Television.

Her collection of 80 animals, many of which have hard luck stories behind them, lives with her and her husband Malcolm in a small cottage standing among fields in the heart of the countryside outside Darlington. The back room has been turned into a home for terrapins, tortoises, cockatoos and other animals that need to be kept warm. In the garden is an aviary with Wincey's collection of exotic birds and a 'hospital' for wild birds recovering from injuries. A bounding gypsy goat leaps in and out of the trees and the whole is presided over by a strutting cockerel.

Wincey, a bubbling blonde with close-cropped hair and cornflower eyes, has always loved animals. 'As a child I never wanted toys - just more pets,' she says. 'I would make model zoos out of cardboard boxes. If a bird fell from a tree or a hedgehog turned up half drowned in a drain, I would always bring it home and my dad would help me look after it and get it well again.'

Over the years, Wincey has built up a reputation as someone who can never say 'no' to an animal in trouble. Strangers turn up at her door with stray pets, fledglings that have fallen out of trees and birds of prey with broken wings. Wincey has made herself an expert on all types of wildlife and her phone is always buzzing with calls from vets, asking her the right mix for hedgehog milk or the correct diet for a song thrush. Her farming neighbours think she is crazy, but they respect her views. Before they plough or harvest, they invite her to inspect their fields so that she can remove any animals or birds to safety before the machines move in.

'To look after wild animals properly and bring them back to fitness so they can be released you have to know what they normally eat and what conditions are like for them in the wild. Trying to simulate their natural diet and living conditions isn't always easy. We had a baby swift once that needed hundreds of tiny flies a day.'

Husband Malcolm, who helps Wincey with her animals, remembers the stay of the swift very well. He was sent into the garden to swat thousands of flies and Wincey boiled them up into a kind of soup. 'But it was worth it,' she says. 'I will never forget the day we let it fly away. It was sheer magic to see it soaring off into the sky'....

Writing about herself in recent years, Wincey says:

You will probably remember me as the mulleted beauty from TV-am with a penchant for bad '80s knitwear...

It all seemed such a good idea at the time - remember, mullets weren't called mullets in the 1980s and seemed very glamorous! Wincey won the honour of the "Head Of The Year" award for her hairdo in 1986.

 It's Raining Cats & Dogs, 1986, This is a lovely read - a twelve month insight into some of Wincey's activities, with an introduction by Gerald Durrell . 

Wincey is still broadcasting and lecturing on media and wildlife conservation, and recently returned to daily weather forecasts on an internet based community news station for West Oxfordshire.

UPDATED 10/6/12

Technology 1988!

A couple of pages from the Comet stores "programme", which appeared in some magazines from 2/11/1988 onwards. Fascinating to look at the trends of the day. Since the early 1980s, a plethora of new phone designs had arrived - including the Binatone Hotline 2 MP200 - a one-piece telephone with 10 number memory. One-piece phones never really took off in this country, but this particular model was a snip at £12.99 - a saving of £2.00 on the recommended price at Comet in 1988. 

Pictured is a clunking great cordless telephone - the GEEMARC 2000, with full two-way intercom at £99.99. Not cheap.

Fancy a cellular phone? The car telephone featured would set you back £399 and a Motorola 8000s hand-held would cost you £599. The latter is described as "lightweight, stylish and compact".

Lightweight, stylish and compact?! It was, of course, by today's standards, a brick. 

Remember Only Fools And Horses and Del Boy Trotter's failed flirtation with yuppiedom and mobile phones in the late 1980s? 

Pictured is the Amstrad CPC6128 computer with 128K RAM and built in disk drive.

Wow.

Technology 1988 style was a whole different world...

Computers 1982

From Clive Sinclair with love... this year saw the arrival of the ZX Spectrum - remembered as the "dear old Speccy" today, but the thrill of the new in '82.

From ZX Computing - an article about the launch of the ZX Spectrum.

Complete with rubber keys...

Personal Computer Magazine - apparently the biggest selling micro magazine in the UK way back then.

Tempted by an Apple? Microcomputers at Laskys in 1982.

Your Computer, February 1982 - with info on the ZX 81 Rubik's Cube master...

The Cube twisting key tapping way to success...

Fancy a "real" computer from Texas Instruments?

Or "broader horizons" with the BBC Microcomputer System?

-

This is a 1982 double page spread for Atari video games, from the News of the World Sunday magazine, dated Nov 7th. Note the little girl's windmill deelyboppers! For more about deelyboppers, see here.

-

We didn't have any computers or gadgets like these in our house at Christmas 1982 - the computer bug had not bitten my family. But this was our final Christmas untouched by computer technology. How about you?

Buster Bloodvessel And Bad Manners

I loved Buster Bloodvessel and Bad Manners - one of the best things to ever happen to our pop charts. This is the Special Brew picture disc - cheers, Buster!

Here, Buster demonstrates posh nosh for the 1980s on Tiswas - pork pie broken up into a jar of pickled onions and swigged down straight from the jar. Yum!

The Sun, 8 July 1981 - and Buster Bloodvessel and Bad Manners are kicking up their Doc Martens for their version of The Can Can. Bliss. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

FRILLY BUSTER

Can-can your eyes believe it?

Big, bald, beefy Buster Bloodvessel, the lead singer of Bad Manners, as a can-can girl?

If you saw last week's Top Of The Pops they certainly can-can!

Buster, 22, is notorious in the pop world for looking outrageous.

But this time he has really done it. He turned himself into an ooh-la-la lovely to celebrate Bad Manners' sixth hit single, Can Can, which shot to No 3 in just ten days.

I was invited to Buster's final fitting of the bouncy, frilly frock.

There was our pin up-in all his glory. A lurid, yellow, shiny frock festooned with petticoats and ghastly black lace.

And poking out from under it all, his massive Doc Marten boots.

It took dressmaker Roz Tosh about twenty minutes to get round him. At 5ft 9in he measures 46-42½-45.

Our hero grinned and flexed his muscles.

Buster said: "I've always fancied the Can Can dancers - very ooh-la-la - but it wasn't until I heard the original version that I realised we should do it.

"Orpheus In The Underworld it is, actually.

"It came on the car radio one day when I was driving to a mate's home. It just blew my ears off.

"The others were as knocked out by it as I was."

Bad Manners have hardly put a foot wrong since.

The nine-man North London band have had little bovver when it comes to hits.

Buster (or Doug as his friends call him) is a nice, cheerful, friendly, fun bloke.

"Of course I'm happy," he said. "Of course I'm jokey. You have to be when you walk down the street and can hear people shouting 'Look at that fat bloke with the bald head'."

Buster lives at home with his mum in Stoke Newington, North London.

"We are all on £60 a week, so there's no way we can be flash on that," he said. "But I'm not complaining.

"I couldn't be happier. I couldn't give THIS for money."

And with an almighty effort he whooshed his right Doc Marten boot up in a kick as high as his head.

Roz said: "I'm thinking of offering his dress to Lady Di when Buster's finished with it."

It could always double as the marquee for her wedding reception!

The Sun again, October 23, 1981:

O Buster!

A Superman hit means he's quids down!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's... Buster Bloodvessel!

Pop's loveable bruiser donned his Superman suit this week after losing a £10 bet over Laurie Anderson's smash hit O Superman.

Bad Manners lead singer Buster, 23, says: "I went round to a mate's house a couple of weeks ago and he was playing this weird record called O Superman.

"He was jumping up and down, saying, 'Listen to this. It's going to be a big hit.'

"With great wisdom I said, 'Pull the other one.'

"It's a smashing record, but I never thought it would be a hit. So I bet him a tenner.

"Now it's at Number Two, and it looks like it'll soon be Number One!"

But Buster - real name Doug Trendle - is taking his losses lightly.

This week, Bad Manners notch up their fifth Top Twenty hit with Walkin' In The Sunshine (Magnet), and their new album Gosh It's Bad Manners has hurtled in at number 26.

What's more pop's unlikeliest pin-up looks set for a lucrative career in advertising.

He says: "I have to shove my head every morning. And I figured that since I use so much shaving foam and razor blades I might as well get paid for publicising it. Makes sense, dunnit?

"So I wrote off to a couple of companies and, would you believe it, they're interested.

And he is writing to the Milk Marketing Board (he drinks pints of it) and to every beer company (he drinks gallons of that, too). But his greatest ambition is to promote picked onions. He says: "Pickled onions are unbeatable. My trick is to open the jar, eat half the onions, then stick a pork pie in and shake it about a bit before swallowing the whole lot down. Lovely!"

British audiences will be seeing a lot more of Buster and the boys on stage. The nine-man band kicked off a marathon British tour last night in Birmingham.

They are playing 23 gigs in as many days and Buster does not deny that even his legendary energy will be sapped.

The boys drink "a few crates" before each performance and Buster downs six pints afterwards.

"Otherwise," he says, "I would be in danger of losing my figure." Beefy Buster has never considered his rippling 18 stones to be a problem.

He says: "I never used to think about my size until people started saying I was fat.

"But I don't care. My Beauty is part of my irresistible charm to women."

The Sun's Gossip Column revealed exclusively this week that Buster has been asked to pose in the all-together by a woman's magazine.

Buster still lives with his parents in Stoke Newington, North London. He would love to buy a place of his own, but he is in no rush to marry.

He says: "I'm a young lad yet with women dropping at my feet - literally.

"I might be big and bald and beautiful, but it's my boots they go for!"

The Riddlers

One day in 1989, feeling a little jaded after a heavy night out, I sat down in front of the telly and was startled to see a boggle-eyed, bushy eye-browed fellow called Mossop lecturing a Boy George clone called Tiddler. Both of these intriguing fellows were apparently Riddlers, little people (English cousins of the Irish Leprechauns?) who lived at the bottom of a well in the garden of Miss Marjorie Dawe's cottage at Riddleton End. 

The Riddlers was a new tots' programme from Yorkshire TV which went on to run until 1998 - 226 episodes, all written by Rick Vanes, with a story in each episode - many of them by Shirley Isherwood.

Marjorie Dawe, played by Victoria Williams (of the excellent children's series The Changes over a decade before), wrote and illustrated children's books. She was the show's voice of reason - providing friendship and guidance for Mossop and Tiddler.

Mr Grimley (Peter Llewellyn Jones), Marjorie's neighbour, was, well, a little on the common side. He became a chimney sweep and was there for amusement value and to show that adults sometimes get things wrong too. But Mr Grimley, dear old Montgomery, could also be depended upon to come up with occasional nuggets of good advice for Mossop and Tiddler. 

The Riddlers programme is fondly remembered by my cousin's children, who were of the right age to be watching, but me and my mates, twenty-four going on four, loved it too - although we were never convinced by the Riddlers characters' insistence that Tiddler, the Boy George/Pete Burns clone (who was voiced by puppeteer Mike Gallant), was in fact a girl. What did they take us for?!

"Hello, you two!"

Around the Internet, there are many references to The Riddlers starting in 1986, but I believe this is incorrect as I was certainly "in at the beginning" and remember it being rather later. The show's writer Rick Vanes states that it began in 1989 on his website, and actress Victoria Williams commented of her central role as Marjorie Dawe in 1996: "I've done that for seven years."

In the story, Tiddler was initially a trainee Riddler, with good hearted and sometimes big headed Mossop fulfilling the role of tutor.

Tiddler graduated to full-Riddler status after answering correctly a series of "Ezup's Foibles" (does that sound vaguely familiar?!).

Marjorie Dawe was declared an honorary Riddler and invited to the dawn graduation ceremony in the back garden at Riddleton End.

Tiddler was then able to choose a new name to take him/her/it through adult life, and opted for Tiddlup.

There's no accounting for taste.

A happy group at Riddleton End - Marjorie, Mr Grimley and the little fellas.

Other Riddleton End regulars included a third Riddler called Middler, a hedgehog called Postie (all Riddler mail is delivered by hedgehogs), a squirrel called Filbert and a hoover called Edgar.

Richard Robinson, puppeteer, a founder member of the Spitting Image team, also worked on The Riddlers - he made the puppets and provided the voices for Mossop and Middler.

One of the most delightful things about the show was its detailed studio set, which comprised Marjorie's living room; the back of her cottage; her conservatory and garden wall (complete with imposing iron gates); the garden (complete with well and Riddling tree); part of Mr Grimley's garden; and the side of his cottage. 

It was all very skillfully constructed, but, of course, it is easy to tell studio from open air, and this slightly unreal look to the scenario worked in the show's favour - giving it, I always thought, a rather magical feel.

Me and der lads loved it.

Tiddler, Marjorie and Mossop. Tiddler was a trainee Riddler who graduated and became Tiddlup, Marjorie was the show's token sensible adult and Mossop, a fully-fledged Riddler, was a little on the bumptious side.

1989 - a "Riddlers" book called "Marjorie's Ring" - part of the Parent and Child Programme, written by Shirley Isherwood.