How we love the TV.

How we love the TV.

It's hard to remember a time when the world somehow got by without a TV? Today we bought a telly, the goggle box, that wonderful piece of furniture which has now become an extended member of our family, presumed to be there, a genuine form of mental and emotional stimulus, a diversion without which we probably couldn't live even if we tried.

 Now it is our friendly uncle, auntie, cousin, brother and sister, a tangible accompaniment to our lives when there's nothing on the radio or there's nowhere to go. We could go to see the latest film in our cinemas, we could play cards, Scrabble, Monopoly or pop round to our family and friends, sharing a light hearted discussion on Manchester City or Chelsea, Donald Trump or the shared enjoyment of ten pin bowling and bingo. But maybe  TV still hits the right spot for us all and maybe it's something that has always been high on our agenda when those appealing alternatives aren't quite what we've had in mind during the evening.

The fact is that TV has to occupy a prominent place in our cultural lifestyles because without it we'd probably wonder whether we've missed out on some notable event and besides the necessity for information nowadays has never been greater. Maybe we could go out and miss all of those programmes that were hardly compulsive watching anyway. Nowadays TV isn't quite the addictive entertainment it used to be if only because most of us have got our essential Tablets, I-Pads and Spotify for company.

But today my wife, father in law and I drove round to our local Asda supermarket to buy a TV which does admittedly sound ludicrous but supermarkets are the new Curry's and PC World so who were we to argue? So there it was comfortably sitting in the middle of a huge concentration of fruit, vegetables, tins of baked beans, milk, bread and that mouth watering roast chicken counter. Eventually we'll all be doing our shopping in one giant warehouse where everything can be bought at the same time.

A couple of years ago a trip to Costco here in North London truly opened my eyes. There was an enticing combination of everything in huge commercial bulk, electronic and electrical equipment nestling side by side with massive packets of Corn Flakes, kitchen towels, kettles and anything else that looked eminently fashionable, appetising or a must for the family living room. But TV's the size of small countries looked so inviting you felt sure that eventually the whole of those heaving Costco shelves would be completely empty of TVs by the end of the day.

Little did a certain John Logie Baird know way back then that his invention would so transform and revolutionise our way of thinking and seeing that roughly 90 years later it would still be there, staring at us questioningly perhaps, unmoved, unspoilt, humble and just pleased to be part of your home. It never shows any gratitude, but, fundamentally, it has to be in our space, our private domain, our antidote and medicine if we're unwell and irresistibly magnetic and fascinating.

Every day we wake up to breakfast TV followed by lunch TV, then tea time before settling down to evening TV which has to hold our attention because otherwise we'd probably do something completely different. TV has been our permanent ally when all around us is crisis or urgency or just plain boring. After school, work or anywhere in particular we come home and assume that flashing, flickering imagery will maintain its extraordinary ability to control our emotions. provoking us, terrifying us, amusing us and then just leaving us in a surreal state of disbelief.

It's hard to believe that throughout those early decades of the 20th century TV would be the starting point for everything. the catalyst for instinctive human reactions, intriguing thought processes and then a pulsating Premier League  match courtesy of Sky on a Monday evening. We all know about TV's full repertoire of the good and the great, the bad and the mad, the crazy and the spectacular. TV transcends everything in our everyday life: the weather, the holiday abroad, the dinner party. At some point during our day TV seems to take an overwhelming priority to everything but now of course we can multi task and find other things to do rather than just find ourselves glued to that box in the corner.

There are of course the DVD box sets, the Play Stations for the kids, X- Boxes for the kids, the I Player, hundreds and thousands of diverse computer games, the vast multitude of Apps on our multi faceted phones that do everything but cook your dinner. But once again you are reminded of just how fortunate we are because during the 1950s and 60s TV was still in monochrome black and white, the picture quality invariably fuzzy, indistinct and often blurred. Then we had to be content with one channel in Britain, the highly esteemed BBC, until the advent of commercial television in 1955.

Then in 1967 BBC 2 blew out a candle on its first night after an industrial dispute had delayed those initial BBC 2 proceedings. Soon though BBC 2 would bombard us with opera, ballet, Shakespeare, classical music, late night interviews with art students, composers and scientists. BBC 2 had and still has controversial, ground breaking plays, earnest news programmes and everything that is both revealing and captivating.

During my childhood though TV was that tiny match box in the corner of our living room. For most of the 1960s my parents rented a DER telly with a screen no larger than a small window. In fact our black and white TV, from what I can remember, was no larger than the conventional gold fish bowl. Around the side of our friendly entertainment, 10 inch box was a dial with a completely random selection of numbers. If memory serves me correctly ITV, Thames or, before I was born, Rediffusion TV was numbered nine and BBC1 and then 2 was probably 34 or 72. But we were blissfully happy, absorbed in the moment, totally transfixed by the startling novelty and freshness of it all.

For years and years our loyal companion survived a thousand broken fuses, frequent problems and those frustrating moments when the screen just went blank and you  had to watch the wallpaper or admire the skirting board. Then there was that wonderful period when we just had to bang the top of the TV, adjust the aerial to some of the most wildly improbable areas of the room. Dad and Uncle Pete would grab hold of the aerial and perform some outrageous dancing ritual with the said aerial. They would insist that he go over there, or maybe over there and you might want to go into the kitchen for the best reception.

TV it seemed was simply designed to drive us bonkers. to challenge our perceptions of the real world because suddenly we began to behave in a way that we'd never thought possible 20 years earlier. But then we realised that we were wasting our time so we gave up, called up the TV engineers, watched those wobbly opening credits on Crossroads and decided that there was no point in getting all stressed out and agitated over something as trivial as a blank screen.

Finally BBC 2's magical snooker vehicle Pot Black appeared in colour for the first time rather than that dull, grey black and white version which had shadows and lines with every shot played. BBC 2 had successfully experimented with Wimbledon towards the end of the 1960s but now everything was in colour. Blue Peter was in colour. the evening news was in colour, the weather forecasters had to be in colour and - wait for it- Hilda Ogden and her murals, were in colour. Could life get any better? Absolutely not.

ITV or Thames TV presented us with loads and loads of quizzes, period dramas of real quality such as Upstairs Downstairs. Benny Hill, Tommy Cooper, Crossroads and Coronation Street. Back in the early days of TV the noble Lord Reith stipulated quite clearly that TV had to both inform, educate and entertain. Now they'd fulfilled every part of that demanding criteria. It was indeed informative because World in Action had certainly met with those requirements but now TV had got it wonderfully right.

But there was a much bigger world and the Americans, as we always knew they would, were, seemingly years and decades ahead of us. In fact they were so far advanced that while Britain was labouring under a cloud of bleak black and white, the USA had been transmitting in colour for as long as anybody could remember. The televisual powerhouses of ABC, CBS, and NBC were regularly attracting millions of viewers with live baseball, American football, innumerable cop programmes, nightly chat shows, Soul Train for the movers and groovers and news bulletins that kept rolling on and on throughout the day and night. Then the Americans became the ultimate creative forces in advertising, soap operas, sponsorships, Telethons and ground breaking pioneers in all TV genres.

The Americans, had, it seemed, invented and re-invented the entire concept of TV,  a means of not only vital communication but also a platform for more originality, more style, more fun, more comedy, drama, improvisation and much more than the unexpected. It was TV that sung, danced, moved and emotionally gripped us. It almost seemed to good to be true. America were the forerunners of everything that was new and shiny in telly, frontiersmen and women in TV's evolving presentation and delivery.

Meanwhile back on British shores ITV or in earlier years Thames and then Carlton before ITV dramatically re-surfaced, was joined quite amiably by Channel 4 then shortly Channel 5. TV has completed a full evolutionary cycle, finally maturing into a multi channel phenomenon that seems to be completely out of control. TV is that all encompassing, all embracing cultural creation that keeps stretching its tentacles, getting bigger, bolder and more adventurous than ever before. It has networks, franchises, big budget film studios, and epic productions. It is never less than amazing, incredible, desperately infuriating at times but then too much to take in.

So there we were back at home with our new TV. It was a 42inch LED set with HD, Sky, Eurosport, MTV and hundreds of channels that none of us could have possibly imagined when Logie Baird was a teenager. Who'd have thought that when the BBC were setting up their first cameras at Alexander Palace all those decades ago that TV would still be with us, more alive and inventive than ever before, always open to interpretation, controversy, drama, criticism and then fulsome praise when merited.

I can't help but look at our new friend in the corner with approving eyes. It does bear an uncanny resemblance to a cinema screen, larger than ever before in an age where technology seems to get smaller and smaller. One day we'll. quite possibly have Surround sound and vision TV whereby images can be viewed in every part of your living room. It does seem the next logical progression but then what would we make of Hilda Ogden's murals? It hardly bears thinking about.