The 1980s with Dominic Sandbrook
Buzzing with excitement over this, as it was a great time in my life, (all rose-tinted, you understand.)
The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook
Submitted by Mel Hayes on Fri, 05/08/2016 - 00:02
By Mel Hayes @melanietowers
Buzzing with excitement over this, as it was a great time in my life, (all rose-tinted, you understand.)
Kicking off with 80's tv, everything was very brown and orange. Even dear old Delia was featured with her lovely crooked British teeth (not like the fake, white gnashers of today's presenters) showing us how to eat spaghetti with a fork and introducing us to a variety of never seen before, pasta.
The introduction of the microwave oven that revolutionised kitchens throughout the UK, meant that you could cook anything in a fraction of the time (or heat up ready meals.) Single parent families, people living alone and full time working mum's - Delia had a recipe for them all. Even old Maggie T cooked breakfast for her family before setting off to work every morning.
The Best of British was promoted and a patriotic campaign was launched to get people to invest in British made products, spearheaded by the sexy Austin Metro - grrrr!
But things started to look grim, the decline in British Industry was having a detrimental effect on communities. The closure of factories was devastating and recession kicked in. Unemployment reached record levels and our lives were reshaped. The answer?, Cue the 'Enterprise Zone', aimed at the service industry and consumerism, built on credit.
Enter the style bible magazine, 'The Face' that pushed advertising, glossy photography and ultimately, image. Popular and emerging New Romantic bands embraced this beautifully with their make-up, hair and fashion. Style, swagger and success took over from class and everyone had aspirational opportunities.
The Labour party was involved in a civil war and was tearing itself apart. A disastrous new leader was appointed and soon enough, a fractured party emerged, a challenge to the deputy leadershp followed and ... hold on!, this all sounds too familiar!
While some of Britain rejoiced at the Royal Wedding, tensions between police and the black community in Brixton escalated and riots ensued across the nation.
Channel 4 was launched; aggressive and shocking, reflecting the lives of young people in minority groups. Brookside was born. Shocking storylines covering debt, divorce, homosexuality, and drug abuse were beamed into our living rooms, like something never seen before, but so mainstream now.
The programme covered the first few years of the 80's and next week's episode will continue to remind us of the highs and lows of an iconic decade of change. Informative, enjoyable and interesting. Worth a watch.
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The 1980s with Dominic Sandbook: Halcyon days
Submitted by Nige Smith on Mon, 22/08/2016 - 22:02
Dominic Sandbrook on the 80s: Halcyon days
The 80s a decade that everyone who grew up around that particular era, look back on with fond memories. Usually if you ask them, it's more to do with the musical scene at the time, and little else about the changing world that we were living in.
I had just become a teenager in 1980 and had just gone to High School. Society was changing, our whole culture was changing. There was a different sort of feel to the UK. Almost like it had entered a new digital age, a powerage.
I am going to review this from my sort of 80s angle using Dominic Sandbrook's programme as my base. I loved watching this it brought back so many memories good and bad. I have watched his previous documentaries and they have always approached the subject from a juxtaposed position.
The Falklands war was the first war that I had actually seen broadcast on TV. Of course it was Mrs Thatcher's saving grace. But it brought across the pain and loss of war right into our homes. Soldiers coming back home to loved ones and loved ones losing loved ones. The image of a very brave Simon Weston still ingrained in our minds.
Mrs Thatcher is always perceived as a pantomime baddie. But in reality Britain was a broken down wreck. Industry spent most of its time on strike with little production at great loss. In hindsight it was easy to blame her for all the wrongs that went on, but she had little choice, we had entered into the EU but had failed to actual,y catch up with the rest of Europe.
Images of striking miners and working miners, scabs they called the workers. It split families, communities and ultimately split the coal industry into a million fragmented crushed pieces.
Thatcher eventually lost the faith of her cabinet who felt like she had lost the people and lost Europe. A tunnel she resented and trade with the EU that she never trusted. Not much has changed really.
But what she did do is bring in technology. Mobile phones, computers in schools, I learnt programming on a BBC computer. So perhaps her vision to drag us into the 21st century had to be done.
But there was a big problem for me personally me with her. It was the image of her hanging out of a Downing Street window proclaiming to demolish and renovate inner cities across the country. It never happened and from then on I resented her with a passion. I joined the print industry and a trade union. I remember the building recession and my dad getting laid off 4 times in a year. I remember my mum saying to my sister and me that "Dad's out of work, so it's Carnation Milk instead of cream". Halcyon days.
Music, fashion, image, better TV, these were the things that a young Nige was discovering. Lathered up in Old Spice, Jazz, and Denim I must have smelt like a Turkish brothel rather than the wannabe stud I was trying to be.
MTV and music in our faces, Live Aid, now that was a happy summer. Trying to dress like Bono but ending up looking like a sack sprouts. The threat of AIDS the panic of Nuclear War, the bringing down of the Berlin Wall, with the aid of Hoff. Glasnost, Star Wars and Ronald Regan. Is this sounding like that Billy Joel song?
Growing up in a village, did not have any drawbacks for us, as everything came consumable, advertising reached everyone on every level. So we could go out and the latest stereo, TV and desirable consumer items. Got to move those microwave ovens.......
But the 80s created money, lots of money, lots of greedy big money. Fat wallets were aplenty in the newly renovated Docklands. Yuppies we called them, big Filofax accompanied by even bigger egos and even bigger bigger phones. These people were effectively running the country using the technological mantra laid down by Mrs Thatcher. Many comediennes made their own loadsa money by sending up these upwardly mobile stuck up money maniacs.
Industry was becoming privatised and taken over by big business, the people could buy shares in a commodity they once had no say in. I even bought shares in BT and British Gas, I felt like a young Wall Street trader. The only problem with people making money, is they want more money, human nature. Not helped by the buy to own scheme which I still think was not a great idea.
But what goes up inevidently comes down, as did the stock market. So the upwardly became downwardly. Wall Street's Gordon Ghekos were crying into their Gordon's Gin.
I look back on the 80s with fond memories, I had become a teen, then a young man finding his way in the world, finding love and loss. Finding my voice as I could vote. I could alter a political landscape with an X.
I still go to 80s nights now, the music is great, some of it has more cheese than a fondue set, npbut I dance all night and drink all those horrible drinks we used to drink, you know them.
Watch this three part series, it's wonderfully narrated and Sandbrook comes across as genuinely interested in the subject. It gives a different slant on the 80s, but I think we all have a different slant on them.
This is a trip back nostalgia lane, take your Walkman, your MTV, your big hair, your big phone, Filofax, Smash Hits, Kerrang and anything else you can think 80s with you. Me, I have my shell suit and my Don Johnson suit in the wardrobe, might bring them out next week!