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If I was a gambling person, I would bet that not many people on here can recall what was on television on the day that they turned 18 without doing proper research like I have done. Mine was an almost ordinary day, not surprisingly to most other people: John Major was still Prime Minister; Bill Clinton was still in the White House; and Archbishop George Carey was still at Lambeth Palace. The Spice Girls were having their first number one with their first hit, Wannabe. And it cost a whopping £89.50 for a colour television licence so that I was legally allowed to mellow on whatever happened to be scheduled onto the small screen during this important time of change.
Television can really shape our lives - it can sometimes provide a diary or even a social commentary of what we did on the day that something was (originally) transmitted. News programmes, soap operas and music programmes can provide a "here and now" culture which almost cannot be matched with any other time in history. Likewise, most people can remember the day (and week) that they reached 18 and became an adult - something that one cannot forget in a hurry. I had to wait until May the following year to vote in an Election, but I do remember getting a Babycham-alike bottle off a family member (which I had kept in the fridge chilled and had not opened until just after midnight on New Year's Day 2000, nearly three and a half months later). I also spent an evening in that lesser-spotted place of celebration - a pub a mile or so away, and sampling something off their menu.
The penultimate day of August in 1996 was when a lot of things in British law changed from illegal to legal (although it had remained the same for most other people on that day). The day before, I had posted an application form for something that I would have been too young to take part in at the time of posting, but I would have legally allowed to participate by the time the form arrived at is destination. It was the day that I became an adult for the first time, and I was supposed to get used to "a new normal" (cf coronavirus in 2020). I thought that I would look into the archives at television programmes that were around at the same time as I had reached my 18th birthday, which in hindsight the nostalgia can be quite strong. Yes, I know that 1996 doesn't seem too long ago...
On my final day as a "cannot be named for legal reasons" person (a token newspaper catchphrase for anyone not quite 18, no doubt), Boyzone was on The Scoop (a short-lived Blue Peter tryout); I went to bed after a Big Break Trick Shot Special; a Freddie Starr Special (no hamsters thankfully), and a lesser-spotted Thursday repeat of Heartbeat (a new episode was on Sunday evenings), and went to bed. At around 5.10 am (if not midnight) the following morning, British law had suddenly changed in my favour and had given me the benefit of the doubt, and I woke up an adult for the first time. I was out most of the day, not surprisingly, but having a look at old TV guides, the television programmes that were to greet me (we didn't have satellite or cable in those days), you would have thought they would have made a better effort!
Highlights included Zoe Ball presenting her final Big Breakfast on Channel 4 as she was leaving to join BBC 1 as the new presenter of Live and Kicking. The annoying Alphabet Game (with the even more annoying "A-You're Adorable" theme tune) with Andrew O'Connor, an Objective production for BBC 1 at midday - having to think of answers starting with different letters of the alphabet in response to questions such as "things you do in the bath", and I seem to remember Nicholas Parsons and Jenny Powell were regulars on there as well. On the other side of the One O'clock News, a repeat of the Ronnie Corbett game show Small Talk (the Child's Play for the mid 1990s), followed by Lovejoy. A black and white Gary Cooper film, Blowing Wild, was on BBC 2. Thankfully, these were the days that programmes like This Morning were off the air and films were in their place - this was when ITV really did recognise school holidays in their scheduling.
Episode 1,945 of Home and Away was shown in the UK where we learn that Jesse has run away from the police; Stephanie's fake passport is discovered, and Alex is rushed to hospital - that was the combined synopsis gathered from TV guides on old British Newspaper Archive newspapers. Sadly, Angel Parrish did not appear in this particular episode according to the IMDB (pity), which is very ironic considering the fact the 2,000th episode of the soap opera was shown on this very day in Australia and was also Melissa George's final appearance - us Pommies got to see that particular episode in around October of that year. I cannot be too certain but Central viewers were probably still seeing Katrina Devine as Minnie Crozier in Shortland Street as well.
(Continued...)
Television can really shape our lives - it can sometimes provide a diary or even a social commentary of what we did on the day that something was (originally) transmitted. News programmes, soap operas and music programmes can provide a "here and now" culture which almost cannot be matched with any other time in history. Likewise, most people can remember the day (and week) that they reached 18 and became an adult - something that one cannot forget in a hurry. I had to wait until May the following year to vote in an Election, but I do remember getting a Babycham-alike bottle off a family member (which I had kept in the fridge chilled and had not opened until just after midnight on New Year's Day 2000, nearly three and a half months later). I also spent an evening in that lesser-spotted place of celebration - a pub a mile or so away, and sampling something off their menu.
The penultimate day of August in 1996 was when a lot of things in British law changed from illegal to legal (although it had remained the same for most other people on that day). The day before, I had posted an application form for something that I would have been too young to take part in at the time of posting, but I would have legally allowed to participate by the time the form arrived at is destination. It was the day that I became an adult for the first time, and I was supposed to get used to "a new normal" (cf coronavirus in 2020). I thought that I would look into the archives at television programmes that were around at the same time as I had reached my 18th birthday, which in hindsight the nostalgia can be quite strong. Yes, I know that 1996 doesn't seem too long ago...
On my final day as a "cannot be named for legal reasons" person (a token newspaper catchphrase for anyone not quite 18, no doubt), Boyzone was on The Scoop (a short-lived Blue Peter tryout); I went to bed after a Big Break Trick Shot Special; a Freddie Starr Special (no hamsters thankfully), and a lesser-spotted Thursday repeat of Heartbeat (a new episode was on Sunday evenings), and went to bed. At around 5.10 am (if not midnight) the following morning, British law had suddenly changed in my favour and had given me the benefit of the doubt, and I woke up an adult for the first time. I was out most of the day, not surprisingly, but having a look at old TV guides, the television programmes that were to greet me (we didn't have satellite or cable in those days), you would have thought they would have made a better effort!
Highlights included Zoe Ball presenting her final Big Breakfast on Channel 4 as she was leaving to join BBC 1 as the new presenter of Live and Kicking. The annoying Alphabet Game (with the even more annoying "A-You're Adorable" theme tune) with Andrew O'Connor, an Objective production for BBC 1 at midday - having to think of answers starting with different letters of the alphabet in response to questions such as "things you do in the bath", and I seem to remember Nicholas Parsons and Jenny Powell were regulars on there as well. On the other side of the One O'clock News, a repeat of the Ronnie Corbett game show Small Talk (the Child's Play for the mid 1990s), followed by Lovejoy. A black and white Gary Cooper film, Blowing Wild, was on BBC 2. Thankfully, these were the days that programmes like This Morning were off the air and films were in their place - this was when ITV really did recognise school holidays in their scheduling.
Episode 1,945 of Home and Away was shown in the UK where we learn that Jesse has run away from the police; Stephanie's fake passport is discovered, and Alex is rushed to hospital - that was the combined synopsis gathered from TV guides on old British Newspaper Archive newspapers. Sadly, Angel Parrish did not appear in this particular episode according to the IMDB (pity), which is very ironic considering the fact the 2,000th episode of the soap opera was shown on this very day in Australia and was also Melissa George's final appearance - us Pommies got to see that particular episode in around October of that year. I cannot be too certain but Central viewers were probably still seeing Katrina Devine as Minnie Crozier in Shortland Street as well.
(Continued...)
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