Sunday 18 April 2021

Fast Forward #126 (Feb 12 -18 1992) (BBC Magazines)


























The main TV related magazine/comic combo for most kids of the seventies and eighties was ITV's Look-in which actually ran from 1971 to 1994. The BBC launched a short lived rival BEEB in 1985 which passed most people by and lasted a mere 20 issues. I picked one of these up out of interest and included a review in my recent Look-in to the Eighties series.

However the BBC did try again in 1989 with another magazine Fast Forward. Of course by then I was well past taking any interest in such magazines but Fast Forward went on to outsell Look-in and lasted until 1995 by which time ITV's long lived magazine had folded like so many publications and comics in the nineties as tastes and times changed.

Having never read a copy I picked up one from random on ebay sadly sans some of the pinup pages. frankly I was really only interested in the comic strips and Eastenders in particular.  




Whilst the Grange Hill story was normal comic fare, the Eastenders was literally a cartoon strip and this edition featured Arthur causing mayhem in his car. Disappointing and certainly not worth bothering about. There was a third story featuring New Kids On the Block and Take That which didn't interest me either.

Frankly Fast Forward was not up to the standards of the Look-in magazine that I had seen or read over the years. The only innovation was the inclusion of multi channel TV guides which resulted from a change in the law. Look-in was also able to take advantage of this.

I've not seen any issues of Look-in from this period so don't don't know how they compare. Maybe one of these days I'll pick up a copy or two.

Number one in the charts that week were the fabulous Shakespears Sister. I still have an album of theirs plus a couple of 12" singles of their which get played from time to time!

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