TinyChan

Bring back days when we all watched the same TV

I'm getting to an age where the cultural reference I use to explain my increasingly long winded points frequently need explaining to younger pals and family members.

Only last week I was forced to detail the life and times of the great Les Dawson to a confused acquaintance after I had dropped the comedy legend into a conversation that had veered onto the potentially sticky subject of mother in laws. I'm also giving up casually referring to classic TV adverts, seeing that nobody under 47 knows what I'm on about when I warble 'I hope it's chips' whenever I'm asked what's for dinner.

In fact, telly, including iconic ads, has partly shaped the man I am today and how I sometimes engage with others; if someone gets a nod to a gag from Only Fools and Horses or even The Royle Family then I instantly know we're going to get along. Whether the box will influence younger generations in the same way remains to be seen, especially when you consider how viewing habits have changed dramatically in more than a decade.

Sitting down in front of the television as a family used to be the nation's favourite pastime, especially when millions of us would watch the same thing simultaneously. In those simpler times, when we were still getting used to having four rather than three channels, 'event' television meant we all had something to talk about in the office or the playground the following day.

These days, we have access to hundreds of channels and thousands of on demand films and programmes, which makes it highly unlikely that we'll be watching the same thing as Dave from IT tonight.

Last week's news that Netflix has overtaken BBC 1 as the country's most watched television service won't come as s surprise to many, especially those with children, who really can't see the point of waiting a week to see what happens in their favourite new series. While there's nothing wrong with being spoiled for choice, I do miss the days when I would settle down with my nearest and dearest to find out together what dastardly deeds Terry Duckworth or Nick Cotton had committed in their fictional neighbourhoods.

Change is there to be embraced and although I have as many streaming subscriptions as the next forty-something billpayer, I do hanker after the days when everyone would understand what I meant when I came down a starcase singing 'I'm a secret lemonade drinker.'