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 think Frasier is overrated, TBH. Yes, the dialogue is very clever but every plot seems to essentially boil down to Frasier having to crisis-manage his embarrasment in the pursuit of some woman.

Everybody Loves Raymond. I don't. He's abusive to his wife , not funny .

I think a lot of Scandi type drama is not going to be acceptable going forward. It actually surprises me that it ever was. The remake series of Wallander is astoundingly exploitative and so bad in its depiction of violence against women. Broadchurch is on very thin ice in this area too. Top of the Lake skirted too close to realism meets prurience to stand the test of time.

SATC makes you wonder, when I see it now…

But, that was us back then. I dated, spent money on shoes, cocktails & clothes. Lots of sex, hot & otherwise. We had a good time! Mostly…

I will never tire of those 2 series.

Carry on films were awful when they were new!! However I maintain the best line in any film ever came from a carry on film (Cleo) 'infamy! Infamy! They've all got it Infamy', absolute genius

Agree, it’s such a great comfort show. We’ve been rewatching the thin blue line on Netflix and I quite like that too - think it’s aged reasonably.

I’d be interested to know if anyone has rewatched Will and Grace? I imagine that aged well as the entire shtick seemed to be “ooh gay men!”

I love Life on Mars and there was talk of a new series but it’s come to nothing. I’m guessing because it’s fairly pointless without the very un-PC comments of Gene that you’d never be able to say today. I adore the show though!

I always liked 2Point4 Children. Also The Upper Hand but I don’t think that’s aged too well either.

I loved the Sweeney 😊
Get your traahsers on, you're nicked!!!

The Royale Family is superb, but the preoccupation with weight has definitely aged badly! Poor Jessica Hynes' character of Cheryl 🙈 we rewatched recently and this, plus a few choice references to homosexuality would definitely not be included today.

It didn't put me off, you can see it's still genius.

Minder is having a rerun at the moment. It's not The Sweeney by any stretch of the imagination, but better than I remember thinking it was at the time.

Re The Sweeney - as Jools Holland and his band mates would say, they were cool (for cats)

I think the X files has ages very well . I still think it's very good.
Frasier is still very witty
Some comedies were terrible even when they were first shown Mind your language was terrible even in the 70s.
I used to like Just Good friends because I loved Paul Nicolas as Vince but that hasn' aged well at all. Now he just seems irresponsible and sexist and Penny is very annoying!
A Fine Romance with Judi Dench and Michael Williams is still a joy to watch though.

I read the Kenneth Williams Diaries recently and yes, he was a terrible snob at times, but he was consistently and utterly scathing about the scripts and production of the Carry Ons even at the time of filming.

Totally agree about Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, and I still love the David Suchet Poirots and Joan Hickson Marples. Babylon 5 was never as popular as Star Trek when it was on TV, but I feel like it's aged better.

Some have been ruined by the behaviour of the cast rather than the storylines - I loved Lewis but I can't look at Hathaway any more without remembering that the 'actor' playing him is a dreadful weaselly bag of shite, and I suspect part of the reason they don't re-show old series of 80s and 90s quiz shows rebadged as 'classic' is the dreadful sleazy behaviour, 'flirting', casual misogyny and clumsy innuendo from the presenters.

I agree. The Carry ons made in the 70s were especially bad. Carry on Abroad and Carry on Matron are two of the worst.
But the early ones had a charm and some funny lines. Carry on Screaming is quite a funny take on the Hammer house of horror films while Carry on Teacher and Carry on Sargent have a gentle charm.

I always think Blackadder has aged incredibly well.

I know it’s all set in the past but the tone, humour etc still works today and almost never feels jarring or dated.

Perhaps it’s me but loved teachers, lovejoy, deadwood, Poirot and Miss Marple, Cadfael, Rumpole of the Bailey

Are you serious? The kissing in it has made my foof clamp shut like an angry clam...

A PP mentioned Minder and I thought it had aged badly when I saw a rerun (probably at least 10 years ago now!)

As PP I think Yes Prime Minister is brilliant. I joined the Civil Service about 10 years later and it was so true to life! I also think Dad’s Army is timeless - it was already historical when made and the writers knew what they were writing about as they’d been in the Home Guard. (It also makes me smile because it has family resonance - I have photos of family members in the Home Guard and stories they told tallied with some of the incidents in the show. Even the overbearing bank manager who was the local Capt. Mainwaring!)

I love the closing credits where each man’s character is shown in how he marches across the field. A little nugget and classic of its kind.

I’ve recently been watching a number of 1970s BBC programmes now available on iPlayer: Going for a Song, Face the Music and Call My Bluff. What is astonishing is how erudite guests were expected to be. They’ve either dated appallingly or are still eminently watchable today because of this very factor - depending on your viewpoint!

Vicar of Dibley humour was dated even on first transmission.

Bit left field but I think MASH has aged well given it's more than 50 years since it was first broadcast. It's still one of the best anti-war programmes ever made and has a unique blend of comedy and pathos. Aspects that would be less acceptable today are the way that the Koreans are often portrayed as yokels and Hawkeye's character, but then he is humanised so well over the series and his womanising is shown to be his way of blocking out the trauma.

Friends is much more recent but has aged less well. I want to watch it with my DD but am worried about all the fat jokes and the message they give. We tried watching Blackadder but she just didn't have the patience for verbal comedy, which makes me sad. But this generation is used to 2 min insta clips. Will try again when she's older.

I'm introducing my son to flight of the concords and it's hard to believe it's 20 years old

So has Frasier.

Scorchio!!!!

The Royle Family, The Thick of It of and The Office
Genius writing and acting as relevant and relatable now as they were 20/25 years ago