A very amusing memoir from comedian Josh Widdicombe about growing up in a tiny Devon village, where he spent much of his time watching TV – either because he loved the shows or because there was nothing else on. This book is stuffed full of 90s pop culture. If you’re the kind of person who’d read Pat Sharp’s autobiography, then this is definitely for you.
The book travels through the decade, looking at various 90s TV programmes which were either British or popular in Britain, including Get Your Own Back, Knightmare, Live and Kicking, The Simpsons, Neighbours, Noel’s House Party, Men Behaving Badly, The X-Files and Gladiators. It also includes major TV events such as Princess Diana’s funeral, Euro 96 and the 97 election coverage, while featuring topics such as lad culture, Britpop, eclipse fever, adverts, teletext and the impending Millennium. The highlight of the book is a spirited defence of Mr Blobby and the failed enterprise of Blobbyland. Although the book is often light-hearted, there are some seriously good discussions.
I’m a few years younger than Josh and I didn’t watch as much TV as he did (it sounds like no one watched as much TV as he did) but I remembered most of the shows and other content. The only elements I wasn’t keen on were the football (too much of it if you’re not a fan) and occasionally the sentences weren’t structured properly.
If you watched TV in Britain in the 90s and you have a sense of humour, I recommend this book!
Published in 2021.
Sounds awesome. I will shamefully confess that I watched neighbours twice a day way back when…
It’s a really good read, would recommend! Ha ha I never watched Neighbours at all, never been interested in soaps.
I last watched Neighbours around the time that Charlene and Scott got married, so am a bit out of the loop!
LOL but that’s the main event everyone knows about, it doesn’t matter that you never watched any more 😀