The best of TV is 20 years old.

There was a time when Saturday night TV meant something was on. The pick of the week's shows would have been scheduled for a prime time run in that included the great names of the time- with acts like Morecambe and Wise and Tommy Cooper being rolled out for our viewing pleasure. Or so they'd have us believe.
In honesty, I can't remember TV ever really being that good. In amongst the Dad's Army/ Fawlty Towers/ Wildest Police Chases repeats there is little worth catching and so, it comes as no surprise that many of us choose to catch up on our TV after the shows have been shown. We watch BBC iPlayer, SkyGo, 4OD and itv player; we have YouTube, NetFlix, LoveFilm et al. It is a question worth asking why we even bother to watch the live telly at all in this modern day and age but, we do.
We're wired in to the box like we're wired in to consumerism- where we always tend to read the shortlisted poetry first for example- knowing it is far easier to let someone else do the programming, leaving you to sit back and suck it all in, hoping they've picked some good stuff. It seems a shame with all the creativity of the world to just watch the mundane- the rolling news, clip shows, gameshows and repeats. In the future, I imagine the dull 'nothing on' nights being a thing of the past as we become ever more tuned in to our digiboxes, and they to us. I just hope, with all the personal video feeds and catch up services coming our way, we can manage to find time to switch off.


The Best of TV

When the best of TV is twenty years old
We're watching the gogglebox, likely arseholed
The season is over, there's nothing to do
So we flick and we watch things like ITV2. 

When the best of TV is twenty years old
And the children are in, 'cos outside is too cold
We'll be judging the talented pick of our nation
As they're axed from a mogul's new manifestation.

When the best of TV is twenty years old
There'll be nowt on the news because views are too bold
Won't be told what to watch but there'll be nothing on
Except Saturday for the treat of a clown with a song.

When the best of TV is twenty years old
Who will bother with books, who will bother with odes
Who will bother with causes, who will bother to vote
Who would dare miss the Jeremy Kyle special for scrotes.

When the best of TV is twenty years old
I sit in the living room wondering who sold
The soul of the nation to Pricedrop TV
Or whether any of this stuff is necessary to me. 

Who would dare miss the hologrammed Audience With...
Who will miss the soap gossip, whose mind is a sieve
Who will turn it off first, who will dare be so bold
Now the best of TV is some twenty years old. 


Thanks for reading,
S