When the first Scarred for Life book appeared in 2017, Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence’s bumper compendium of 1970s pop culture’s darker side tapped into a time when teatime kids’ TV seemed steeped in folk horror and dystopian sci-fi, and public information films gave you nightmares. A second volume did something similar for the 1980s.
A new Scarred for Life podcast takes this further, with Brotherstone and Lawrence joined by presenter Andy Bush as they ask suitably culty guests to confess three things from their childhood that genuinely terrified them.
“Scarred for Life has always been a conversation,’ says Lawrence. “The original idea for the books came from conversations that Ste and I had over many years, the conversation continued in the live show Q&As with audiences, and it just seems a natural progression to take that conversation forwards in a podcast.’
Now five episodes in, Scarred for Life has seen the likes of producer/director/writer Jamie Anderson, son of Supermarionation legend Gerry Anderson, lay bare their fears. Listeners can also learn the origin of the phrase ‘shite hawk’, and discover what Taggart star Mark McManus was referring to when he once spoke of the only star of a TV show brought on set in a sack.
“One thing that plays into memories of the period is that we all watched the same three - later four – TV channels,’ Lawrence points out. “That meant that next day in the playground, you could talk about what you’d seen the night before and guarantee that lots of your friends had seen the same. Programmes were much discussed, mythologised, and false memories heightened the horrors.’
The Scarred for Life era was nevertheless a very different time.For Brotherstone, “Pop culture in general wasn’t necessarily scarier in the Scarred For Life era, but it was definitely a lot more shocking. Kids’ dramas could often pass for post-watershed shows, with violence, blood, and mild swearing. Children's comics were insanely violent. The ‘70s and ‘80s were like a lawless Wild West, while the 90s is when the Sheriff arrives and everything calms down. One of the many reasons why we'll never do a ‘90s book.’
Given the ongoing real life dystopia we’re currently in the thick of, what 2023 nightmares might a future equivalent of Scarred for Life reference? For Lawrence, that’s an easy one.
“The news,’ he says.
The List, December 2023
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