An evening that celebrates the terrifying popular culture of the 1970s and 1980s comes to Blackpool Film Festival at The Backlot Cinema on Sunday 3rd November at 7pm.
Scarred For Life sees writers Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence taking to the stage to discuss the TV, films, music, comics, books, adverts – and even sweets – that blighted their childhoods. So be prepared for a no-holds-barred examination of Worzel Gummidge, Doctor Who, Noseybonk, the Usborne Book of Ghosts, Horror Top Trumps, and the bovver boy skinheads from the 1980s Weetabix adverts!
It’s an evening inspired by their three hit books. Scarred For Life Volume One: The 1970s was published in 2017, with Volume Two: Television in the 1980s following in 2020 and Volume Three: Pop Culture in the Shadow of the Bomb in 2024. The books have now sold tens of thousands of copies, even finding a fan in Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
I grew up being scared of even the gentlest TV shows. Things like Bagpuss and Rupert the Bear left me feeling decidedly uneasy!
“As an only child sitting permanently in front of a black and white TV, I absorbed a lifetime of scares in a few short years,” says Dave. “Including Tom Baker seemingly being drowned at the end of an episode of Doctor Who, and people being shrunk in a BBC2 showing of the old 1930s horror film The Devil Doll. My mum and dad’s easy-going attitude to what I watched absolutely scarred me for life… and I couldn’t be happier about it!”
“The terrifying opening titles to Shadows, an ITV supernatural series for kids, confirmed to my five-year-old self that the decade was going to be a tough one to get through,” adds Stephen. “And I was right! Violent comics, scary board games, bleak adult dramas and eerie kid’s shows all conspired to haunt my nightmares. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!”
“And, as a 50-year-old, there’s still a Public Information Film about rabies that I can’t bear to watch…”
The evening is hosted by Fortean Times writer Bob Fischer, who will be gently prodding Stephen and Dave to relive their most traumatic childhood memories, as well as chipping in with a few of his own… including the sinister star of yet another traumatising Public Information Film: The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water. And there’ll be a Q&A afterwards, for audience members to share their own memories of an era when children’s entertainment could be truly traumatising.
Other highlights include a Top of the Pops-style rundown of 1980s chart hits inspired by the prospect of impending nuclear armageddon, and Stephen’s pet theory that a vintage 1980s advert for British Pork has veiled undertones of cannibalism!
“As soon as I read the book, I knew I’d found kindred spirits,” says Bob. “I grew up being scared of even the gentlest TV shows. Things like Bagpuss and Rupert the Bear left me feeling decidedly uneasy! But what’s really strange is that so many of us now look back on our childhood fears with genuine fondness, and a sense of warm nostalgia. And that’s what the show tries to celebrate.”
“I think of these evenings as a support group. We were all terrified by these childhood experiences, and now it’s time to share them… with a few laughs along the way.”
Scarred for Life is the final event in the Blackpool Film Festival programme on Sunday 3rd November.
Full listings for the Film Festival can be found here.
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