The Television of 23 Years Ago

One of the reasons I started using WordPress instead of Blogger was so that I could post some of my old diaries online (Blogger didn’t at the time allow you to go back beyond a certain date which was not early enough). Over time I’ve gradually been putting up some of those diary entries, and a conversation with a friend reminded me that something I used to do in my diary for a while, which was to make a top twenty chart of my favourite TV programmes each week. Here are a couple of weeks from back in 1986:

TV Chart Number 2
TV Chart Number 15

What can we learn from these? Well, firstly as is patently obvious, I watched a lot of sport when I was 14. To be fair, I still do, but in these digital days it is more likely to be Eurosport or Motors TV. Also given that I only had access to four channels back then, I seemed to be even more focused on BBC1 and ITV. This changed over time, I gradually started watching more BBC2 and Channel 4, and then once we got satellite television, I really started moving away from watching BBC1 and ITV at all. These days it is a rare occasion that I do.

I’m surprised I listed Eastenders in the later chart, I don’t remember ever particularly being a fan of that. I certainly watched it more often in those days, now I’m far more likely to watch Coronation Street, and actively try to avoid Eastenders (although my wife has other ideas on this count). Mainly though it’s just a nice little reminder and insight into my own tastes a long time ago.