The delights of daytime TV
It is no fun having the flu but NEIL CLARK found he cheered himself up by enjoying the feast of vintage viewing available to us all
good Bergerac was. One episode involved the search for a stolen racehorse called Crimson Cavalier.
He is a stallion, insured for £6million but it transpires that he has an interest in other male horses, leading Philippa Vale, played by Liza Goddard, to cheekily suggest that he should be renamed “Gay Cavalier”.
Another gripping instalment starred Ronald Pickup as crooked businessman Sir Anthony Villiers who registers his main holding company on Sark to keep the fraud investigators at bay. Again, large computers churning out reams of paper feature in the plot.
In the end Sir Anthony loses all his ill-gotten gains in a bonfire with Bergerac helping to pile the wads of readies on to the blaze.
On the Yesterday channel I discovered the joys of back-to-back episodes of Yes Minister. Given the present furore over encrypted messaging services Jim Hacker, Minister for Administrative Affairs, takes a principled stance against government surveillance. That is, until Sir Humphrey informs him he is on a terrorist hit-list.
In another episode Jim rails against Brussels and the European gravy train. But his Euroscepticism mellows when he is offered the job of an EEC commissioner on £50,000 a year plus generous expenses. Does that remind you of anyone?
It is fun to try to place the years of these programmes by the hairstyles, cars, clothes and technology on view. In As Time Goes By on the Drama Channel, owning a mobile is still seen as rather yuppyish and self-important. I guessed the episode I was watching was from 1999/2000. In fact it was from 2002. Just before we all became “yuppified”.
It is drama from the eve of the internet revolution that looks particularly dated – 1997 is only 20 years ago but it might as well be 200. Just think: no Facebook, no Twitter, no smartphones.
I was reminded how techno-lite the mid-1990s were by watching the delectable Pie In The Sky on Drama. Computers may have got a
CRIMEBUSTERS in the 1960s, such as the Avengers, had an even harder time, with Steed having to make do with an umbrella and Emma Peel with her karate prowess (and the occasional gun). Somehow, though, they got by.
Classic series do not just show us how much Britain has altered but how our television has changed, too.
The programmes I saw, even if they dealt with murder and mayhem, were lighter in tone than today’s more depressing offerings. Because they were not obsessed with being PC they were also more honest.
The plots, while inventive, were always possible to follow, unlike those of the too-clever-by-half Sherlock.
Another bonus with the golden oldies is that you can hear everything the actors say and you can see them too – as the scenes have proper lighting.
Clearly channels keep showing vintage series and films because viewers love them. But will contemporary offerings be enjoyed as much by flu sufferers like me surfing nostalgia TV 30 years from now? Sadly, I doubt it.