What we were watching

Do you remember these shows that were on TV this week ten, 20, 30 and 40 years ago?

1976

Newcomer Nick Nolte was the star of the summer as a boxer in ITV’s US mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man. Nick already had experience of throwing punches – he’d been expelled from high school in Nebraska for fighting.

1986

BBC1 and ITV devoted over 17 hours to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s wedding, with Alf Garnett – the docker from sitcom Till Death Us Do Part played by Warren Mitchell – even giving his unique take on the event on the BBC.

1996

Raymond Burr, famous for playing defence lawyer Perry Mason, was back in court – as a judge in thriller Grass Roots on ITV. Canadian-born Burr became so famous as Perry Mason he was often asked by members of the public to represent them in court.

2006

Fearne Cotton ignored suggestions that hosting ITV’s raunchy reality show Love Island was a poisoned chalice. ‘ It’s not only a dream job, working on a sun- kissed island,’ she said at the time. ‘It’ll also help to advance my career.’