Is it just ME

Or is yet another TV channel the last thing we need?

UNTIL I was 15 years old, there was a grand total of three TV stations to keep us entertained. ITV was considered ‘a bit common’ and BBC2 ‘a bit high-brow’, leaving BBC1 as the channel most households tuned into.

And that finished broadcasting around midnight when it was replaced by the ‘test card’, a fixed image of a young girl playing noughts and crosses with a terrifying stuffed clown.

The introduction of Channel 4 in 1982 felt revolutionary. Little did I know that four decades on I’d be saying ‘No! Not another one!’ at news of a new streaming service.

There’s now a mindboggling amount of telly choice and, well, it’s just too much. Every time I switch on my TV, I feel as stressed and confused as I do going into Ikea — stuff everywhere, I can’t find what I

I feel nostalgic for those three lowly channels that shut up shop at bedtime

want and I don’t understand the system.

Paramount+ is the new streaming service launching this month. Of course, my first response is ‘I’m not signing up for another one,’ but a quick glance reveals it’s here that the new series of Frasier, one of my alltime favourite shows, will be screened. And that’s the problem with this plethora of streaming services — they tempt with these delicious morsels and before you know it I’ve signed up.

And there’s the social pressure, too. When your friends and colleagues are all talking about Anatomy Of A Scandal (Netflix) or Ten Percent (Amazon Prime) then you want to get in on the conversation.

Had someone told 15-yearold me that by the time I reached middle-age I’d have thousands of shows available at the click of the button, I’d have been giddy with excitement. Today, I feel rather nostalgic for those three lowly channels that shut up shop at bedtime.