My wife's great grandfather is ninety-three (bet you didn't know that either!) which means he would have been thirteen - thirteen! - when telly started eighty years ago today.
Now, I'm no telly addict (neither is he) but the thought of not having any till I was thirteen started me thinking...
... and here are just a few of the shows I'd have been missing:
- Trumpton
- Chigley
- Camberwick Green
- Hector's House
- Mary, Mungo and Midge
- Top of the Pops
- Swap Shop and, of course,
- Blue Peter
To be honest, I was a bit of a TV geek when I was younger and I loved Blue Peter when they flung wide the studio doors to let an elephant or a marching band come in. Not 'cos I wanted to see the elephant or band or anything else for that matter, but for the backstage glimpse of the studio that it gave you - cameras, lights and telly-action. I loved the episode when they made an entire behind-the-scenes feature, and here it is on YouTube, for all to see:
I always wanted to see all that stuff for myself and - what d'you know? Wait forty years for one visit to a TV studio and then two come along at once. Because - in addition to my moment of glory on ITV This Morning last Tuesday (which you may *ahem* have noticed!) I was a guest on the ChrissyB show on Sky channel 203 (along with @CommandoDad) the night before. Here's that show (in case you missed it). And you'll notice I'm wearing the same pink shirt as I did the following morning (which wasn't intentional)...
