Popular Nostalgia

T.V. shows we remember fondly. A Popular Nostalgia staple.

Some people stand in the darkness, afraid to step into the light. And then there was Baywatch. We never missed a single episodes as normally disorganised brothers and dads managed to time their takeover of the telly to coincide with the weekly soft porn episode brought to you by David Hasslehof. I recently watched a [...]

Another travesty of the one-hit wonder phenomenon. Good for charity though, a bit like the Peter Kay re-make of “Show me the way to Amarillo”, but much more annoying. Watch out for Jeremy Clarkson and Carol Vorderman in this video. You even get to see Mrs Blobby and Baby Blobby towards the end as well [...]

The best morning show of th 1990′s. Ant, Dec and Cat Deely would run amok for a couple of hours. Ant used to try and beat the kids at the trivia quiz and he could be quite harsh -especially if he won. They impersonated most celebrities and we nearly got the long-awaited kiss on their [...]

Let’s get ready to rhumble! PJ & Duncan were the stars of Byker Grove -the cool kids. PJ was much cooler than Duncan, who was a bit soft. Duncan was the baby-faced nice one and PJ the fit, naughty one. Played by Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelley, the characters eventually grew up and out of [...]

A SEMINAL MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF BRITISH TV!! Byker Grove was gritty, but worse than the under-age sex, drug-taking and general malaise of a rough Northern sitcom was when PJ, the hero of the saga, took one for the team against Denton Burn. I cannot remember how many times I have heard people recall [...]

Noel’s House Party was the highlight of any 90′s Saturday night. Fun with Mr Blobby and so many characters ringing the doorbell. It was quite funny to give Noel his due. Lots of gunge involved for people who had been cheeky. Candid cameras for people who would be watching and plenty of guests. Mr Blobby [...]

Top Banana was another children’s TV show which aired really early on a Saturday morning, on ITV in the UK. It was a gameshow set in a jungle, and you could get an easy question by asking for “a piece of cake” – the kicker being that you would have to answer while eating a [...]

Presented by that-guy-off-Red-Dwarf, Craig Charles. Robot Wars was the arena for robots to do their best to try and blow each other up on TV. Especially funny when they tried to interview the uber-geeks backstage who would mumble and blurt out inappriopriate comments. The show’s own master robots sometimes came to a grisly end of [...]

Mr Motivator WAS the 1990s. He carried off three horrendous looks in one go: The Bum Bag – rarely was Mr Motivator ever without his precious bum bag. The Leotard – something which should never be seen on a male, out of athletics, he somehow managed to get away with it. In bright colours. Before [...]

“I’ll have a ‘P’ please, Bob!” “I’ll have an ‘E’ please, Bob!” Oh, how we laughed. Seriously, though, Blockbusters was great TV. Students would play for weeks, in pairs, or solo, and would always be accompanied by a furry mascot, eventually, they would win a budget prize, like a “Steam Iron” or a trip to [...]

Remember being scared of the big bad wolf? Did you want to date /look like Jet? Remember when Shadow got done for using steroids? and the wonder of people fighting with giant cotton buds on elevated platforms? Gladiators was a phenomenon of family viewing. Everyone knew someone who’s teacher’s friend’s brother’s babysitter had been a [...]

Wayne’s World was a movie phenomenon in the league of Ferris Beuler’s Day Out, Grease, Dirty Dancing and all the other coming-of-age-films. Except Wayne’s World was cooler. I once gave myself whiplash trying to re-enact Garth’s blonde head-banging to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. This film is single-handedly responsible for a whole generation ending every sarcastic [...]

In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else [...]

In true BBC style, Michael Fish urges a stiff upper lip and insists that there is nothing to worry about. Devastation ensues. The news the next day: Unfortunately for Michael Fish, this one clip then followed him for the rest of his career but a little research reveals that he was, in fact, misreported: “My [...]

Last night on “Enough Rope”, Robson Green was being interviewed and in the course of the programme, a clip was shown of his performance of “Unchained Melody” on Top of the Pops. The memories and the cringing came flooding back as I recalled how that hideous, smarmy song never went away after weeks at the [...]