Telling the story of the nineties through the TV that we watched and the people who made it, this is a kiss under the mistletoe with the shows the defined a nation and a fumble with the things that fell through the cracks. From “Bullseye” to B*Witched, my new book takes a nostalgic potter through the past whilst documenting its impact on the present. Its an era where we said “Eh-oh” to the Teletubbies and goodbye to the Trotters, Noel Edmonds was everywhere and people nervously waited out the Millennium and the end of times it would inevitably bring. A time where mobile phones, the internet and DVD were becoming an affordable reality yet co-existed in a world where Bamboozle on Teletext, the Funfax and VHS cassette labels marked in red ink “MUM’S TAPE – SOLDIER SOLDIER – DO NOT TOUCH” were still a regular sight in many homes.
Programmes featured include “Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game”, “Bernard and the Genie”, “Des O’ Connor Tonight”, “Stella Street”, “The Wrong Trousers”, “Teletubbies”, “Newman and Baddiel Christmas in Pieces”, “The Ghosts of Oxford Street”, “Maid Marian and Her Merry Men”, “TFI Friday”, “Men Behaving Badly”, “Auntie’s Bloomers”, “2 Point 4 Children”, “Stars In Their Eyes”, “Light Lunch”, “Walker, Texas Ranger”, “Dinnerladies”, “Beavis and Butt-Head”, “Father Ted”, “Gladiators”, “The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon”, “The Flint Street Nativity” and “The Wizard Of Oz…On Ice”. Plus star names including Take That, Madonna, Harry Hill, Quentin Crisp, Lenny Henry, Mrs Merton, Willie Carson, Adam and Joe, Johnny Vegas, Rory Bremner, Edd The Duck, Mr Blobby, Lulu, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Spice Girls.
There’s no through clear cut story to the 90s which rose and fell in both public mood and global events but through the TV we saw it all. From the first Gulf War to the Rodney King attack and the riots that followed. From the fall of Thatcher to the rise of New Labour. There was the constantly discussed and reviewed OJ Simpson trial, the cloning of Dolly the Sheep, Lorena Bobbitt‘s knife work, Oasis vs. Blur, the UK’s return of Hong Kong, Titanic making a billion at the box office, the resurgence of the Wonderbra, peace in Northern Ireland, the Channel Tunnel, Versace‘s assassination, the drama of Italia ’90 and Euro 96, Geri‘s Union Jack dress, the growth of the internet and sites like Napster threatening the music industry for the first time, Rwandan genocide, Nirvana and the shocking suicide of Kurt Cobain, Black Wednesday, a new Scottish Parliament, women priests, the boom in adult animation, Poll Tax riots and the constantly under scrutiny life and death of Princess Diana. It was the nineties and it feels like it happened only two minutes ago and simultaneously in another lifetime.
Lets escape the present, together shall we?
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