Bill Harvey: At the drive-in

Like many of my generation, I am sure I spent way too much time sat in front of a television. Rather than being deterred by warning from my mom that I would develop ‘square eyes,’ I can remember being both curious and excited by the prospect. This was around the time that colour TV was being introduced, and when the lack of choice meant that whatever you watched, someone at school would also have watched the same. TV knowledge was an essential playground asset.

That said, TV at the time was hardly the ‘golden age’ often cited by nostalgics. As Boy George reminded us in his excellent recent BBC4 documentary on the 70s, it is hard to believe the irony that one of the first colour broadcasts from the BBC was The Black and White Minstrel Show. This should have caused riots in the streets. We are probably in that ‘golden age’ now, with better variety from subscription and multiscreen access – high quality broadcasting is everywhere. But while there are still people claiming the likelihood of broadcast media influencing behaviour, often deleteriously, evidence for this is sparse and questionable.