At least I am not alone in yearning for timewewere freeofworry

Living in the moment is a philosophy which has gathered pace over the past few years. It means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, and relishing the simple joy of being alive.

I’m a great believer in this advice but since lockdown I have to admit that I’ve been pining for the past.

I spent the first few weeks of the pandemic watching back-to-back episodes of Friends and me and my mates have been digging out old photos from some of our wilder night’s out (remember them?). I even bought myself a pair of flared jeans because they reminded me of being a carefree teenager.

And it seems I’m not alone in this nostalgia fest. A study tracking our viewing habits during lockdown found that 50% of us were turning to old favourite TV shows. Fashion is regressing too – even mullets are making a comeback, I hear.

Nostalgia is a natural coping mechanism, according to psychologists. Our happy memories are a safety blanket we wrap around ourselves to help us face the unknown.

This week’s cover star Angela Scanlon’s new BBC panel show Watch The Noughties taps into this need.

In our interview (pages 6&7) she shares her own treasured memories from that decade and reveals how she and her family have coped with lockdown.

Oh for those simple days when Obama was the leader of the Free World, Trump was still a jumped-up reality TV star and the only virus we feared was the “millennium bug”...