I was watching some TV show on BBC 1 earlier call ‘The TV that made me’ and it got me thinking what made my TV growing up until the mid-1970s. Therefore, I delved into my memories.
My first TV memory was ‘Watch with Mother’, back in the 1960s in particular Andy Pandy and although Andy was ok, it was Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men that were my highlight. In today’s TV, where violence is attributed to TV shows and video games is that why I was a naughty boy? Was it down to Bill and Ben? There was also the Woodentops, another favourite and the Picture Show.
I would say my next TV milestone was the classic Doctor Who a Saturday night tradition. My Doctor was Jon Pertwee (The third Doctor) and one of his companions was possibly my first crush the wide-eyed Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and then the thinking man’s crumpet journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). Yes like a lot of watchers back then I watched some of the scenes from behind my hands clasped tight to my face with just enough of an opening to watch. Having not seen many monsters back then it was pretty scary stuff from the classic Daleks to the Sea Devils. I enjoyed the fact the ‘Doctor’ was involved with the British Army UNIT and their leader, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
I regard ‘The World at War’ a TV landmark in my life that was how important I hold this TV series. It was really the first time I understood what war meant and putting playing Germans and British into a completely different context. It also hammered home the Holocaust probably the first time I really saw a programme on the subject. That haunted picture of the face screaming out at me in the programme titles I have never forgotten. It was also the programme at began my love affair with factual documentaries.
Recently I spent a week re-watching the four series of ‘When the Boat Comes In’, thanks to my friend YouTube and it was an excellent way to while away some time. James Bolam, he from the ‘Likely Lads’ was in the lead role as Jack Ford, brilliantly acted. Making is way from a demobbed sergeant to a London playboy and his interaction with the Seaton family who he rather adopted. Jack was to marry the Seaton’s daughter Jessie but got is ‘morrow’ mate sister pregnant so married her instead.
His life continued to be intertwined with the Seaton’s has he rose up the social ladder from a fitter, union official and wealthy businessman. The series ended with Jack killed while running guns to the socialists during the Spanish Civil War after been blackmailed by Jessie and her brother Billy Seaton. He died a signed up member of the Fitters Union stating it was the only way he could live with himself.
Match of the Day was and still is an important part of my life but in my childhood and early teens it was a Saturday night me and dad thing. Our team rarely featured on the programme unless it was a FA Cup Match of the Day special but we both loved our football. Everyone would be in bed and Dad would come home from the club sometimes with a bag of chips and a bit tipsy and would tell me stories about the family and his childhood.
Survivors (1975) a BBC post-apocalyptic drama which concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an accident released virus that kills nearly the entire human population of the planet. We find scattered survivors of every age, race banding together in small communities, learning to become self-sufficient with some nastier than others.
My first TV memory was ‘Watch with Mother’, back in the 1960s in particular Andy Pandy and although Andy was ok, it was Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men that were my highlight. In today’s TV, where violence is attributed to TV shows and video games is that why I was a naughty boy? Was it down to Bill and Ben? There was also the Woodentops, another favourite and the Picture Show.
I would say my next TV milestone was the classic Doctor Who a Saturday night tradition. My Doctor was Jon Pertwee (The third Doctor) and one of his companions was possibly my first crush the wide-eyed Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and then the thinking man’s crumpet journalist Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). Yes like a lot of watchers back then I watched some of the scenes from behind my hands clasped tight to my face with just enough of an opening to watch. Having not seen many monsters back then it was pretty scary stuff from the classic Daleks to the Sea Devils. I enjoyed the fact the ‘Doctor’ was involved with the British Army UNIT and their leader, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
I regard ‘The World at War’ a TV landmark in my life that was how important I hold this TV series. It was really the first time I understood what war meant and putting playing Germans and British into a completely different context. It also hammered home the Holocaust probably the first time I really saw a programme on the subject. That haunted picture of the face screaming out at me in the programme titles I have never forgotten. It was also the programme at began my love affair with factual documentaries.
Recently I spent a week re-watching the four series of ‘When the Boat Comes In’, thanks to my friend YouTube and it was an excellent way to while away some time. James Bolam, he from the ‘Likely Lads’ was in the lead role as Jack Ford, brilliantly acted. Making is way from a demobbed sergeant to a London playboy and his interaction with the Seaton family who he rather adopted. Jack was to marry the Seaton’s daughter Jessie but got is ‘morrow’ mate sister pregnant so married her instead.
His life continued to be intertwined with the Seaton’s has he rose up the social ladder from a fitter, union official and wealthy businessman. The series ended with Jack killed while running guns to the socialists during the Spanish Civil War after been blackmailed by Jessie and her brother Billy Seaton. He died a signed up member of the Fitters Union stating it was the only way he could live with himself.
Match of the Day was and still is an important part of my life but in my childhood and early teens it was a Saturday night me and dad thing. Our team rarely featured on the programme unless it was a FA Cup Match of the Day special but we both loved our football. Everyone would be in bed and Dad would come home from the club sometimes with a bag of chips and a bit tipsy and would tell me stories about the family and his childhood.
Survivors (1975) a BBC post-apocalyptic drama which concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an accident released virus that kills nearly the entire human population of the planet. We find scattered survivors of every age, race banding together in small communities, learning to become self-sufficient with some nastier than others.
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