Time Warp: Young Talent Time, 1986

It's been more than 50 years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show leapt from the operating table, fuelled by big personalities and wild imaginations from Australia’s creative underground. It morphed from a stage show into a film, an aesthetic and, for fans around the globe, a series of arcane rituals that bind them together. One of its most berserk incarnations was a cover version of the 'Time Warp' on a 1986 episode of the pint-sized variety show Young Talent Time.  

It’s a number within a number: Mark Stevens, in Kiss-style make-up and shoulder pads, plays a pinball machine. Within it, the chorus struts their stuff, dodging flashing lights and silver fitness balls. Dannii Minogue, for some reason dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh, gives us a hint of her vocal range as she snarls out Magenta’s line, ‘Like you’re under sedation!’  

It was always a pleasure to see Countdown top-10 hits watered down (no pelvic thrusts here!) and camped right up by this relentlessly peppy bunch of showbiz kids.