Do you have any Pink Windmill recordings lying around on your old VHS tapes? Or any other Rod/Emu/Grotbags-related material? Those tapes won't last forever, so if you think you may have anything at all of interest, please get in touch. Everyone else, please share this video as far and wide as you can - I'm determined to track down the episodes we're missing.
As for the matter at hand, the song you're listening to is Working in the Coal Mine, originally a hit for Lee Dorsey, but with an introduction that comes from Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis. Originally broadcast on Thursday, 16th June, 1988, this noisy low-quality audio cassette recording is currently the only fragment we have of Emu's World S6E6.
When it comes to what I remember of the dance itself - and do please bear in mind that I'm writing this 36 years after the last time I last saw it - I seem to recall it starting above ground in front of a mine entrance, possibly with a cart nearby (although I may be conflating that with memories of Knightmare). I think the rest was in a maze of underground tunnels, perhaps utilising this background:
• Emu's World S6E12 (198... &t=1057
Except I'm pretty sure it was a multi-level blue screen job, not dissimilar to A Rolling Stone. I seem to remember that at the time it looked vaguely reminiscent of when Wile E Coyote chases Roadrunner from around 3.25 in the 1952 cartoon Beep Beep:
www.dailymotio...
Not that the Kids were no bigger than tiny dots, of course - just that at least one of the inter-connected tunnels was higher that another. Something in the back of my mind is telling me that the outfits worn were the same overalls as in I Wanna Make the World Laugh, but with added miners' helmets with those lights on the front. I think they may also have had pickaxes or similar tools, which you can actually hear being struck if you listen carefully to the percussive elements.
The more I type, the less sure I am of any of this, but I'd be delighted to be proven right or wrong either way, as long as it involves finally getting to see the routine again all these years later. So if you've got any of the episodes mentioned in the text of the video, or any related material (or, frankly, any CITV recordings at all from the 80s now that I think about it) gathering dust in a pile of your childhood VHS tapes, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Sincere and profound thanks to Louise, Lindsay, Sarah, Jayne, Sally, Joe, and Spencer for lending me their Pink Windmill tapes this past decade or more, and to Shaun, Stephen, Neil, Jason, Scott, Oliver, and Sean for providing their own recordings to the cause over the same period. We'd have got nowhere without you.
(If you're a copyright holder and have any objections, please feel free to contact me. Alternatively, I haven't monetised the video, so you're welcome to do so, and that way everybody wins.)
#LostMedia
17 сен 2024
