Programmes that have aged poorly and programmes that have aged well?

[HaveYouHadYourBreak]

What programmes that you loved have surprised you on rewatching?

I've just finished the first series of This Life and was surprised at how well it has aged for the most part (but so much smoking!). It was refreshing to see people with imperfect teeth and pubic hair and wobbly bums living in a grotty house share past their early 20s. I'm re-living my youth with the music too.

But Coupling! Oof! I remember it being really good but some clips I've seen (like making sex videos without consent and the way women are talked about) demonstrate exactly why I've never seen any re-runs.

I doubt that the people who were the brunt of the jokes were so much happier.
Making fun of people.who are different from you, have less power, and are more vulnerable is not funny and nor should it be

In your opinion. I find them just as funny as I did as a child when they were first released.

Maybe Im missing something here, yes its true that some older shows were problematic, racism, sexism, women in suspenders being chased by men etc
Fast forward to 21st century offerings and we have the F word (and others) thrown around like confetti, graphic and gratuitous scenes of violence and murder, and explicit, virtually naked graphic sexual scenes etc.
So who is saying this is more acceptable than the old stuff?

Probably showing my age now but does anyone remember Butterflies with Wendy Craig?

I remember watching that as a child and wondering if this was what married life was like? It's full of 70s attitudes but I loved the stoic absurdity of Craig's dysfunctional character who can't cook being caught up in being a traditional wife role and having two grown (sexist) sons and a (old school) husband to deal with. It was written by a woman so it was wonderfully perceptive and human and feminist without being in-yer-face 'I hate men' feminism.

I remember loving the theme tune to it. I saw it a few times but was a bit too young to understand what it was about.

Thunderbirds!

In many ways, it is still amazing. It has some signs of the 1960s; very male-oriented, with women more often damsels in distress (or bad drivers, a point specifically discussed in one episode: “you didn’t say whether the driver that caused that huge fire was male or female!”). But the storytelling and visuals are still great, considering it was all filmed with models, long before any CGI. It’s also interesting to watch what kind of technology it predicted for the 2020s.

Loved this at the time because the Wendy Craig character was very much not my mum, though I wished she was.
I also remember an earlier Wendy Craig series where she played the part of a Nanny and would go to different grand houses.
its frustrated me for many years that I can’t find it online anywhere

Are you always this rude?

What is your experience?

I am English. I don't take "Brits abrod" style holidays, and I have always been made to feel welcome wherever I have travelled. I am respectful of local customs, eat in local restaurants and support the local economy wherever I go.

Please don't tar all English people with the same brush. Maybe the common denominator is you.

The only rude, angry person on this thread is you. Think what you like. Pick a fight with someone else 👍

@localnotail My favourite Alan Partridge is his leaving party at the hotel when the head receptionist loses it with him.
All the pent up anger of 6months coming out in a few seconds.

Nanny (The Nanny?) was actually later than Butterflies iirc.

Loved it and (along with to The Manor Born) it fuelled my desire to life in a big old house surrounded by rolling fields and with horses.

I completely agree with you. Some of the old comedy which is now frowned upon was truly laugh out loud amusing. I hate current comedy, most of which seems to concentrate on sex, swearing and bodily functions. I really dislike being confronted with writhing bodies on my TV when I am eating dinner!

Some of the classics seem to pop up on BBC4, though - and BBC3 often has things like Two Pints, which probably aren't that much more recent than when OFAH finished.

I don't get why they would keep making and showing new episodes of Mrs Brown's Boys on BBC1 whilst ignoring their vast archives of similar-style 'traditional' sitcoms that they already have.

One show which I recently re-watched and loved all over again is Sapphire and Steel - still spooky and thought-provoking, and of course it features the wonderful Joanna Lumley and David McCallum.

Love New Tricks and it's still watchable multiple times (with a bit of a gap in between!).

Also loved Hustle and that's pretty timeless too.

Yes Minister/Prime Minister is somehow always topical on tv or radio!

Agreed. Although I do think that Tom's "flirting" with Margot was very tongue in cheek rather than a serious play to get in her knickers. He was efffectively making fun of Margot and Barbara found it a source of amusement too (not right, but that's what it was). But I always thought Margot and Jerry were lovely, generous people whilst Tom and Barbara were both pretty self absorbed and at times very unpleasant.

I saw Two Pints was on recently and watched a bit for curiosity's sake, remembering a light-hearted argument I had with someone in what must have been the late 2000s about what was the funniest thing on TV; Two Pints was her appalling choice. It was actually better than I remember it being, which means one of two things: either it was better than I remember it being, or the standard of sitcom writing gets worse. I'll let the MN Collective draw their own conclusions.

I almost get a physical nostalgic pain when watching the brilliant 1981 Brideshead Revisited.

The last time I watched it I was reminded that it wasn't actually made by the BBC but Granada for ITV. Those were the days.

Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel in The Crown remain the best things ITV ever made.

Ooh yes The Jewel in the Crown was brilliant.

There is no way it would be commissioned now, mostly because of what comes out of Jim’s mouth.

Or another orifice

G'kar is my absolute favourite. I sometimes go and watch his speeches on YouTube, incredibly well written and delivered with such emotion

Ivanova's death incarnate speech is worth a watch

I find it frustrating when people generalise that there's no good sitcoms on any more - I think there's plenty, on varied topics, but I don't think people watch them in the same way because how we've watched TV has changed.

For example, The Other One is a brilliant BBC sitcom, with a great cast. Alma's Not Normal- hard hitting but funny, Mammoth- amusing. If people are streaming though, or don't look them out, they don't get watched!

That's not the point, though. The character she played was not only made to look dowdy and plain, but she was repeatedly bullied and humiliated for it.

Her 'character flaw' was not in being mean, rude, arrogant, deceitful, lazy, selfish, dishonest... her 'fault', for which she was repeatedly criticised, was in being a young woman who wasn't pretty. And one of the saddest things of all was the way that she just accepted that treatment as her lot in life.