Suddenly, the Shopkeeper Appeared #

5 November 1998

Sitting in a curry house in Yorkshire with three colleagues, when without warning, my favourite conversation reared its most welcome head.

The same conversation I’d had dozens of times before, with virtually all my friends and acquaintances. The one that I’d had whilst walking up mountains, sitting in pubs, lounging in parents’ houses in the early hours of the morning as a teenager, or in halls at uni. It’s seemingly timeless, and anyone who grew up in Britain in the 1970s and ’80s can take part.

I am referring, of course, to the “classic kids TV” discussion, where two or more people who should have forgotten such things long since fondly recall the unparalleled televisual delights that we’d all love to see repeated. Mr Benn, Jamie & His Magic Torch, Chorlton & The Wheelies, Bagpuss, Bod, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dogtanian, He-Man, Ulysses, etc.

I can’t quite explain why it’s so enjoyable - maybe it’s the fact that other people remember the characters and plotlines that you’ve forgotten, that you’ve spent years trying to recall. Last month, climbing Beinn Dorain, Richard and myself were trying to list all the characters in He-Man. It made the miles fly by.

The internet is a wonderful tool for helping jog all those old memories and solve the drunken arguments. Months ago, I considered setting up a website like this one, before I discovered it had already been done. In fact, I would go as far as to say that my favourite use for the internet over the past four years has been to download the theme tunes of the shows I used to watch as a kid!

I don’t see much kid’s TV these days, for obvious reasons. I’m told that it has it’s moments, but I doubt it can live up to those halcyon days when we were growing up… or does everybody say that?