Why The Specials were so special

This episode focuses on the sandwich battle between Subway and a chain called Blimpie. Apparently the latter is big in the United States but didn't seem to make it in other countries.

Subway - a chain that started because a high school student needed to make some money for college - definitely did.

It's in more than 100 countries around the world and, unbelievably, has more than twice as many US restaurants as McDonald's.

The Subway story is a surprising one - from the poor first choice of business name to the evolution of placing all the sandwich ingredients at the front of the counter where the customer can see them.

Today, all the sandwich chains tend to do the same thing but it was Subway that started the trend.

UK band The Specials are one of those artists who managed to inspire other bands who went onto much bigger things.

We're talking about the likes of Rancid, No Doubt, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and pretty much every other ska band from the 1990s onwards.

This documentary - part of a three-part series on iconic UK bands - does a pretty good job of encapsulating both the history of The Specials and why they mattered.

If the way to tell you're watching a good music doco is that it inspires you to go and dig out their records and CDs, then A Message To You is a very good music doco.

The hyphen in the title of Armstrong's show is intentional for this is a show about seemingly ordinary things that come with extraordinary stories attached.

The idea behind the show is that it looks to tell our history in a different way, through simple things that tell a bigger story.

But it is a bit hit and miss; some of the stories in the first episode aren't really that extraordinary.

For instance, there's a lot of time spent with the president of the Birdsville Races and looking into the leather satchel that holds the paperwork for previous races.

Despite Armstrong's best efforts at seeming to be excited by it, it doesn't really work.

The best bit about that segment is the historical recap of the races delivered by comedian Michael Hing.

That part felt far more interesting than Armstrong delving into that leather bag.

It's a similar story when Armstrong ventures across the country to Perth to discover the Conti roll, a sub-style sandwich created by the Italian community which is big over there and pretty much unknown everywhere else.

Again, the best bit is an overview of the Italian culinary effect on Australia, delivered by comic Concetta Caristo.

It is perhaps not the best thing when the bits from the supporting players are more interesting than those from the guy with his name in the title.