Cool Britannia? – It was no fun being there

kentonline editor

Please help. I appear to be trapped in some waking nightmare where I’m being transported back to the mid-1990s. This is no run-of-the-mill nightmare where I’m being chased or falling from a high building. Instead it features terrifying creatures like Chris Evans, Keith Allen and the ubiquitous Alex James from Blur.

It seems the 1990s have come back into fashion, whether we like it or not.

Those who don’t remember it the first time around might be taken in by the slew of nostalgic documentaries about ‘Cool Britannia’ and the like but, let me assure you, it was no fun to be there.

One recent programme looking back at the decade tried to make out it was something akin to the French Revolution, as a procession of young upstarts turned the world on its head and stuck up two fingers at the so-called ‘establishment’.

The architects of this alleged shockwave were those listed above and people like the shark-carving artist Damien Hirst and the staff of Loaded magazine.

In other words, a load of attention-seeking bores that would make your heart sink if they walked into the same pub.

The dumping ground for all this contrived blokeiness was Evans’ Channel 4 programme TFI Friday, a must-see for anyone who wanted to get really depressed about the state of popular culture.

Now the programme is coming back with a new series commissioned for later this year, we have to endure the whole sorry spectacle all over again. Evans will also be back on our screens as the new host of Top Gear, so more ‘appointment’ television (as in, make an appointment to be elsewhere).

It’s often said that if you remember the 60s, you weren’t really there. If you remember the mid-90s, however, you were just really unfortunate.