Everyone Dies In Sunderland: A podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties - Tiny Supervillans (It's 1996 and Claire is introduced to Mr Pinkwhistle)

Tiny Supervillans (It's 1996 and Claire is introduced to Mr Pinkwhistle)

Explicit content warning

11/06/22 • 64 min

3 Listeners

Everyone Dies In Sunderland: A podcast about growing up terrified in the eighties and nineties

In the mid 1990s Britain carried out an interesting social experiment to see if taking a children from a chaotic and poverty-ridden childhood in some of most deprived parts of the North, giving them a dehumanising nickname, making them some kind of weird celebrity, and repeatedly publicly condemning in the hope that would stop their offending behaviour.

Rat boy. Spider boy. Worm boy. Boomerang boy. Balaclava boy. The singing defective. Who were they? And what became of them? Did widespread national condemnation work?

Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.

But this is a time when the government literally wanted the justice system to, and this is a quote from the Prime Minister “understand less and condemn more”

And it’s the story of a region too, and by that I mean, this is what they thought of us back then.

DID SOMEONE SAY LISTENER OFFER! LISTEN TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET 20% OF A SPIRIT SEEKERS GHOST HUNT NEAR YOU!*

It’s 1996! Jarvis Cocker wiggles his bum and then gets beaten up by a man dressed as Buddha! Chas Chandler dies – but not before he’d helped Jimi Hendrix busk near Byker (but not near Byker Grove)! Babylon Zoo spend more time at number one than Liz Truss did at number 10 (or did they?)

John creatively fills that fiscal black hole we’ve heard so much about. Gareth introduces Claire to Mr Pinkwhistle. Roy of the Rovers gets seriously weird.

Who are your bewildering local heroes? People like Lord Latif or the guy from Durham who looks like Mario? Is he a lecturer at the university or did John dream that?

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is performed and written by The Way Out, was it not? Usually though, it’s “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here because he’s got a kid on the way and kids need shoes.

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

*As long as you live in Sunderland.

Rat boy. Spider boy. Worm boy. Boomerang boy. Balaclava boy. The singing defective. Who were they? And what became of them? Did widespread national condemnation work?

Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.

But this is a time when the government literally wanted the justice system to, and this is a quote from the Prime Minister “understand less and condemn more”

And it’s the story of a region too, and by that I mean, this is what they thought of us back then.

DID SOMEONE SAY LISTENER OFFER! LISTEN TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET 20% OF A SPIRIT SEEKERS GHOST HUNT NEAR YOU!*

John creatively fills that fiscal black hole we’ve heard so much about. Gareth introduces Claire to Mr Pinkwhistle. Roy of the Rovers gets seriously weird.

Who are your bewildering local heroes? People like Lord Latif or the guy from Durham who looks like Mario? Is he a lecturer at the university or did John dream that?

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

*As long as you live in Sunderland.

Previous Episode

The Devil’s Bridge - the site of Britain’s worst road accident. Twice.

Something particularly alarming about growing up in the eighties and nineties was how ambivalent everyone was about basic road safety – even though horrific accidents happened with terrifying regularity.

In June 1925, the brakes failed on a coach as it made its way down a steep hill at Dibbles Bridge, in North Yorkshire. Seven people would die in what was at the time the worst road accident in British history.

Fifty years later, thirty three people would die at Dibble’s Bridge in identical circumstances.

Nearly fifty years on, this crash remains the worst road accident in British history.

It took another 20 years for seatbelts to become mandatory on coaches.

Along the way: David Bowie ingratiates himself with the people of Sunderland! John Pertwee takes a very unorthodox approach to convincing electrical retailers to sell their customers extended washing machine warranties! Ben Wishaw smells lovely! Jimmy Nail thinks she’s lying (she’s lying)!

The gang behind THE OFFICIAL PODCAST OF STACEY SOLOMON SCENTED AIR FRESHNERS also recall the first time they were censored. Young Gareth accidentally doodles boobs. Young Claire defaces her Snatch. Young John articulates a trees-eye view of nuclear war between Britain and America Wogglebox Island

You can reach us on email [email protected], on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.

Our theme music is “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here:

https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay

“Well I'm love forty down
And I can well recall the age my father reached the ancient age
That I'm now staring down
Through the barrel of my fourth decade and honestly I am afraid

Next Episode

Everyone Dies In Sunderland’s Christmas Presents

You know when Noel Edmonds would turn up in a helicopter on Christmas morning to deliver Christmas presents to deserving members of the public? Even through there was no indication they wanted him to?

We don’t have a helicopter, but we do have 22 minutes of bloopers from the last 12 months – SOME OF IT ORIGINALLY CUT FOR PROFANITY AND ALL OF IT WE HOPE YOU KNOW WE’RE JOKING – including some extra chat with our friends Scarred for Life.
Carnations you mistook for roses, that’s us.
Anecdotes about John's appearance on Pointless are going to be our version of Joe Cornish's story about Steven Spielberg, aren't they?
Second Easter Egg as you're probably aware of Taylor Swift."I'm on a date with God and he's drunk"