Do you remember that? ‘A temperature of 120?’ ‘I’m really ill! I really am!’ ‘Yep, you’re dead.’
STEPHEN & CHRIS, BRIGHTON
CHRIS:Blind Date. Surprise Surprise.
STEPHEN: We were allowed to stay up late to watch Dallas. But back then, we didn’t have a pot to piss in and we had a TV that had a pay box on it. And you used to put 50p in it and wind it on, and that would give you four hours’ worth of viewing. And you’d get a collection of 50ps in the box. The man would come and empty it once a month, take out the rental (because we rented the TV), take a bit out for the licence fee, and what was left you got back.
Dallas went out on a Wednesday night at eight. So, we were allowed to stay up for that. But sometimes we didn’t have another 50p, so we’d miss the end of Dallas. And if Mum had no more money, to entertain us she used to take her teeth out and gurn. And we would all roll about laughing and then go to bed.
When I was very young, I watched Magic Roundabout, Rainbow, the man that used to go in the cupboard in the fancy dress shop … Mr Benn. Loved that.
CHRIS: Because I’m five years younger than you it was all Phillip Schofield, you know, in the broom cupboard.
STEPHEN: See, I was out joyriding by then.
THE MICHAELS, BRIGHTON
ANDREW:Watch with Mother – that I did actually used to watch with my mother.
CAROLYNE: So did I.
ANDREW: My favourite one was The Flowerpot Men. And my second favourite was Andy Pandy. And as a five-year-old, I actually used to look forward to the bit where he gets in the basket at the end with Looby Loo, because I knew there was something going on.
CAROLYNE: In the basket.
ANDREW: I didn’t know what it was at five, but I was bloody sure there was something going on.
CAROLYNE: When we first met, that was our frame of reference, wasn’t it? You were Andy Pandy and I was Looby Loo.
ANDREW: Do you remember the Jaguar XJS? I used to get the Looby Loo that was you and hang it up in the XJS. But in addition to the two that I’ve just mentioned, Stingray, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, Lost in Space and Star Trek.
CAROLYNE: I used to look forward to watching Top of the Pops, because that was the only time we’d ever get to see any groups, wasn’t it?
ANDREW: Don’t think I ever watched one episode of Top of the Pops.
CAROLYNE: Oh! Blue Peter! I got a Blue Peter badge. For complaining.
ANDREW: Did you?
CAROLYNE: They gave it to me as a consolation prize because I came down to Brighton to see Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves and John Noakes. I was a massive fan of Blue Peter. Every week, when they used to get the Fairy Liquid bottles out, I used to make everything. I was there with all my cereal boxes and polystyrene and that sticky back plastic.
Well, I came down to see them on the London to Brighton – I must have been about nine or ten – and I was so excited to meet them, to go and say hello and get their autographs. And I went up to the car where they were and I think they had minders or something. And they just pushed me away and said, ‘Oh no, no, go away, you can’t meet the presenters,’ and I was so, so upset. I wrote a letter to the BBC and so, as a consolation prize, I got a letter signed by all the Blue Peter cast, and a Blue Peter badge. I really liked Peter Purves, I have to say. John Noakes I wasn’t so keen on, perhaps because he wasn’t so good-looking.
LOUIS: I remember a time when we were watching a film and there was a sex scene or something like that. And I was nine or ten, quite young, and Mum was trying to put her hands over my eyes. And I was thinking, get back, woman. I have to grow up some time.
