As the old saying has it, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. You know the sort of thing: fruit and vegetables don’t taste like they used to; the summers were sunnier and the winters were colder; you never needed to lock your door (aye, right) and so on.

One of the more enduring misconceptions is olden-days television was much better than what’s on offer today. Sometimes I find myself falling into the trap. Just the other night, I bellyached to my wife that, while we have access to around a hundred channels, there’s nothing worth watching on any of them. Disputation being my wife’s factory setting, the observation prompted a stroll down the televisual memory lane.

I can, for example, still recall at a distance of more than 60 years, delivery of the Marr family’s first TV; a Ferranti 14-inch. The entrance of the Queen of Sheba couldn’t have been accorded more wonderment. Despite the miniscule screen, the cabinet was enormous, the depth of the gubbins at the back being about three times the screen width. In relative terms, TVs were expensive and the technology often unreliable. It was akin to a death in the family if the costly “tube” on your telly “went”. Technical interruptions were frequent and “Normal Service Will Be Resumed As Soon As Possible”, was a regular occurrence. Broadcasting hours were limited and until 1957, there was a total shut down between 6 and 7pm.

Technologically, we live in a different and unquestionably better age. Nowhere is that more evident than in sport broadcasting. Those of a certain age will recall BBC Scotland’s Sportsreel, that morphed into Sportscene in 1975. Early presenters included George Davidson and Peter Thomson, long suspected of being Old Firm fans with microphones.

They lacked the studied objectivity and neutrality of their present-day counterparts, Ally McCoist, and Andy Walker. Highlights of a Scottish match, invariably involving Celtic or Rangers, were shown on a Saturday evening. Plus ça change and all that. Back then, the film quality was such that it seemed all Scottish matches, including those in August, were played in blizzard conditions.

Early televised matches were bedevilled by technical glitches, leading to key incidents being missed. Most of the goals in Celtic’s 7 – 1 defeat of Rangers in the 1957 League Cup Final, were lost to posterity. The explanation that the cameraman only belatedly remembered to remove the lens cap, is probably apocryphal. Nowadays, we are at saturation point and sport of some sort is available 24 hours a day. In earlier times the diet was much more basic. We even looked forward to Friday night swimming internationals and the Horse of the Year Show. Yep, things were that bad.

Televised sport is therefore undoubtedly better, but what about other forms of programming? The nostalgic amongst you might argue that comedy, particularly sitcoms, was much better. Having done some research in the “comedy gold” channels, I’m not so sure. With a few exceptions, 60s’ and 70s’ sitcoms haven’t stood the test of time. As a student, I used to find Monty Python absolutely hilarious. Prior consumption of six pints of lager probably helped. After recently viewing a couple of Python episodes, my considered judgement was, “Did I really find this funny?” It’s wrong though, to think early TV sitcoms were all Terry and June. It’s unlikely Spike Milligan’s Curry and Chips and possibly, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, would see the modern light of day. Reaction to the imminent resurrection of Till Death Do Us Part will be interesting.

There was however, greater seriousness in much of the early output. The educate component of the Reithian mission to “Inform, Educate and Entertain”, was more prominent. In part, that was down to technological limitations. A single fixed camera could just about cope with studio-based talk and discussion. With only a couple of options and no remote control, channel hopping wasn’t really an option for 1950s’ and 60s’ viewers.

The shorter attention spans of modern audiences demand immediate visual stimulation and novelty, explaining the superficiality and triviality of much present-day programming. It’s sobering to think, in 50 or 60 years, people will recall the golden age of Love Island and Big Brother. The rattling noise you hear is Lord Reith spinning in his grave.

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