Dear LPG Readers,  

Isn’t it funny how the electronic diversion that you find at least one of in nearly every average English home has changed over the years?   

When most retired people were young, television was the new innovation and I am sure that we older pensioners might vaguely remember seeing the coronation of Queen Elisabeth II on what would now be considered a really small, cube-shaped, heavy box in the house of the perhaps one neighbour who actually had managed to acquire one in time.   That was the year 1953.  

Interestingly, the size of a television is still usually measured diagonally across the screen and, in those days, an impressive specimen had a screen that measured about 17 inches from corner to corner.  

They were available in the early 1950s but it was not until the early 60s that they became a standard part of everyday life.   The very square black-and-white picture was magical, even though we had to wait until 22nd September 1955 for a second channel.  BBC2 was introduced on April 20th 1964 and then we waited years for ITV2 and a further 23 years before, December 7th 1998 we had four whole channels to choose from.   

In the past 3 decades, televisions have become both more squashed and stretched to be the flat-screen and widescreen TVs that we are used to these days.  Over the years, they have also both shrunk and grown out of all proportion, with your average-sized living room television now hanging on the wall.  The cube at the back has all but gone, and you have to be watching a really old programme for the picture to be square.   

Now, the average house has at least two televisions.  The one that takes centre stage in the living room and the one in the bedroom, and while that average screen measurement of 17 inches might be found on the extra screen, the main one in the house measures nearer 50 inches on average these days.  I have seen 100-inch screens, while I remember having a handheld 3-inch screen that I kept in my handbag so that I could watch during my lunch hour when at work.     

We all went from black and white to colour in 1969 or soon after, depending on when we were able to afford a new set and the price of the new licence which cost 25% more if you had a coloured set, making the new annual price £4.00.  Parents at that time thought that the six channels we had were to many (because they left us sitting in front of the screen for much longer than was good for our eyes, our social development and our time schedules), before the introduction of Freeview and cable gave us at least 150 more to choose from.  


But the other great invention of our time keeps on giving while many of us older people continue to struggle with getting to grips with it.  I am talking about the World Wide Web, which has seen the viewing screen grow in popularity and shrink in portability over the years, leaving the younger generations streaming what they want to watch. I remember when we thought it inconsiderate to watch television at dinner time, but you can now watch anywhere. 

I remember when families used to watch together.  I have to say that I live alone and while my television is my only company on many a dark night, the theory that they, together with computers and mobile phones are stunting our use of the original communication tool, face to face conversation, has to be taken into consideration. 

It is true that every good thing that has ever been invented usually has a downside, and I think that there are many sad ironies that come with this invention.  

Now that those in the know have perfected the size and picture, colour, contrast and all the channels we can have, our mobile phones are slowly making them redundant.    

While it has a habit of interfering with all the other things that we can be doing because so many of us get too involved, when we are really ill, alone and stuck in a hospital bed, it can be the thing that would pass the time if only we could afford the really inflated price of watching it there.   

BJ, Lewisham 

 

 

BJ shares a few British TV memories…

 

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