| Product: |
I Love 1970 something |
| Date: |
09/02/01 (433 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Nostalgic telly
Disadvantages: The "celebrity" commentators
When it comes to nostalgic 70s & 80s programmes, I'm as big a fan as the next person. I loved the 1970s series on BBC2 and was delighted when I saw the 80s were being covered, this being a decade I remember more about, having been born in '71.
But...I am finding these are becoming less enjoyable. I can't put my finger on it exactly, it might just be that after 12 episodes I'm becoming tired of the format. However I have come up with a couple of other reasons:
1. The commentators.
For a start, who the blazes is Stuart Maconie?? He pops up in every episode giving his views (I don't even find him particulary funny) and I've never ever heard of him. He most of all is beginning to irritate me most about the whole I love 19.. series. If anyone can enlighten me as to who he is and how he managed to get on this show please can they do so.
Some of the other commentators aren't much better. What extraordinary memories these C-list celebrities have. For example Jamie Theakston was giving his tuppence worth on episodes on events, music etc in the early 70s. Hang on a minute, I'm pretty sure that Mr Theakston is about my age(29), I have an excellent memory but I don't think I could comment in depth on programmes and music that were around before I even started school. Either he is lying about his age, or has been given the programme to watch earlier so he can make witty comments - I suspect this is true of most of the commentators, given that they manage to show the exact clips that they have just mentioned.
Likewise with Michelle Gayle, she was Hattie in Eastenders ages ago and had a couple of pop hits in the mid-90s. I've not heard much about her since. Yet she pops up commenting on what she was up to in the early 80s when she must have only just been out of nappies.
Don't get me wrong, some of the comments are really funny, Phil Kaye usually had me rolling off my chair
laughing in the 1970s series but we have seen less of him in the 1980s series.
2. "Fill-in" material
I get the impression that sometimes the researchers have bitten off more than they can chew with trying to fill a whole 1.5 hour episode on just one particular year. I read a review of this (I think it was the hated Garry Bushell) saying that the programme was useless because it missed out historic events - oil crises etc that affected the life of the nation. I don't agree with him, the title "I love..." suggests to me that the programme makers set out to make a lighthearted look at the year, if you want historical documentary too then look back at the excellent Rock & Roll Years series, made I think in the 1980s. However, I do think that it is obviously a struggle to fill in every episode, for example, a trailer for 1983 shows Blockbusters, I recall Blockbusters being very popular for most of the decade, why confine it to 1983. Likewise with spacehoppers, which I believe were discussed in the 1971 or 72 episode - spacehoppers were still all the rage when I was older, about 1977. I wonder if it might have been more effective if BBC2 had just made shorter series called: "I Love the 1970s" and: "I Love the 1980s" rather than try to concentrate year by year when it seems they struggle sometimes to find things to put in it.
Well dooyooers, I don't want to give you the wrong impression, I will still continue to watch as I'm a sucker for nostalgia. And I do like the programme. But I feel I am going to burst with frustration if I don't find out soon who Stuart Maconie is, it really is bugging me.
Lets have less of Stu, more of Phil Kaye!
Summary:
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Last comment:
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edie - 23/04/01 I love this show too! Though having done some work on it I'm sort of biased. But still..By the way Stuart Macinie is mainly a music journalist- he writes for Q magazine I think. Though he spends most of his time now making appearances on these nostalgia TV programmes |
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