The Year Is

1985 w/Eshaan Akbar - Neighbours, Michael Jackson buys The Beatles, New Coke, Harrods, George Michael

The Year Is

Show Notes

Eshaan Akbar eventually arrives after a big night out to join us for a historical tour of the year after he was born. In 1985, the fictional Australian town of Erinsborough is discovered, when television soap opera Neighbours begins and launches the careers of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, and Guy Pierce, Michael Jackson takes the advice of his friend Paul McCartney to invest his money in music rights to build his wealth and buys half of the Beatles catalogue, Coca Cola launches New Coke, Mohamed Al-Fayed buys Harrods, Comedy Movies Back to the Future and Beverly Hills Cop films come out, and George Michael and Andrew Ridgley co-wrote Careless Whisper.

Also Eshaan is making friends with his stand-up, opening for Mickey Flanagan at the o2, Red has invented a new measure of finance with the Haagen-Dazs Index, and Bobby is struggling with staying awake again.

Get tickets to Eshaan's last remaining tour dates at London, Manchester and Leeds - https://www.eshaanakbar.com/tour

Watch Eshaan in the latest season of Sex Education coming soon to Netflix!

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More from The Year Is

Aug 23, 2023

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Aug 2, 2023

Red is imprisoned in a Dubai prison so the brilliant Radu Isac steps in to guest host and joins Bobby to break down an important year for Radu's home country. By a speech in the Parliament of Romania by Mihail Kogălniceanu, the country declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire (recognized in 1878 after the end of the Romanian independence war). American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier, after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Jul 26, 2023

This is a very funny episode with the very funny and patient Micky Overman who is left alone with Red whilst Bobby is still away to make sense of a better world, before the world descended, the last year when everything was great, 2015. Musicians Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars recruit 11 writers to pen the sound of the summer "Uptown Funk", 100 people rush to the rescue of a unicyclist trapped under a bus, several people are catastrophically injured and left with life changing injuries in the Alton Towers rollercoaster crash, Jeremy Clarkson quits the BBC's number one car show Top Gear, and Mark Zuckerberg announces Facebook has reached one billion users. Also we learn about Micky's painful 2015 breakup, how Red and Micky first met at the Cavendish Arms open mic where Micky won, and the benefits of the Pizza Express Gold and Silver Rewards Club.

Jul 19, 2023

Bobby is still on the run from Interpol, somewhere in the world, so Red sits down with the brilliant Phil Ellis for a deep dive of the most important things that happened in 1981 starting with the birth of very funny Edinburgh Award winning comedian, Phil Ellis, also the very first London Marathon happens and Mozart's Undiscovered Symphony is discovered, also in London.

See all episodes →