BLOG Nostalgia TV

Expect a burst of 1980s nostalgia to blow into your living room from the BBC tonight. But blogger John Cooper ponders whether the TV programmes we remember from those days is still worth watching.

Rose Tinted Telly

Ashes To Ashes is back on the box ready to dish out more Gene Hunt and ’80s nostalgia with its pop culture, day-glo colours, and affectionate nods to television of a time not-so-long gone by.

Loving old telly can be a wonderful thing, certainly it you’re of an age where you remember a programme in the distant past and have fleeting fractured recollections of programmes that informed your opinion growing up, or at the time were just the best thing ever, leaving an indelible thumbprint on your psyche.

In the last few years independent DVD distributors have increasingly sought and released more programmes from the archives aimed at pressing your rose tinted memory button, with titles like Star Fleet, The Owl Service and both series of The Tripods promising all kinds of nostalgic nirvana.

If you’re considering going back in time to rediscover something old, before you go doing a metaphorical Sam Tyler or Alex Drake, there’s a question you may want to ask yourself. “Do you recall greatness because it was good telly, or is it simply the fondness of childhood memory?”

There’s a held belief that old telly was just better. Back in the years before the industry broke off into smaller independents, started chasing ratings and making cost cutting reality shows, telly was made in a different way and was often the better for it, allowing shows to be made that wouldn’t have passed the pitching stage in a modern environment. HTV’s Robin of Sherwood cost a packet and used an unknown lead, but still today stands head and shoulders above it’s modern BBC counterpart.

However fond the recollection, memory can be a double edged sword. For every chance of rediscovering a classic, there’s equal chance of re watching a show wasn’t really that good and should probably stay in the shiny corner of your mind next to episodes of Luna and deely-boppers. Something I discovered recently purchasing Kenny Everett’s Naughty Bits purely for the Cosgrove Hall animated inserts of the Captain Kremen space adventures. A magical memory of hilarity and rudeness over 20 years ago… that has simply aged very unfavourably, and in watching it informed me that I have too.

There’s nothing wrong with a good hard slice of nostalgia, just be careful what you wish for.

This is a personal article by John Cooper, one of our new bloggers – read more about our volunteer contributors on this dedicated page. Are you planning to watch 1982-flavoured Ashes To Ashes tonight? Do you have fond memories of Kenny Everett and Captain Kremen? Your thoughts welcome as always, in the comment thread below or on our forum.