The summer holidays of childhood were once defined by a unique television experience. For a glorious few weeks, BBC 1 and ITV would dedicate their morning blocks to children's programming. These weren't the endless, on-demand streams of today but a finite, curated collection of shows with each episode a precious, fleeting moment.
It’s easy to look back with rose-tinted glasses and imagine a world of never-ending adventures. The reality, however, was often much more modest. Many of these series, particularly the imported cartoons, comprised a mere 13, 26 or 39 episodes. Their brevity, far from being a limitation, was their strength as it created a sense of urgency, a shared understanding that this particular story arc had a beginning, a middle and an end and there was just one chance to watch it (until repeats would be shown gosh knew when). This was before TV guides were the norm, unless you paid for the Radio Times and we weren’t millionaires in our household.
This shared experience forged a common cultural currency and you and your friends would discuss the latest escapades of characters like Dogtanian, Sebastian or the ongoing saga of T-Bag, who seemed to be a familiar face yet was reinvented just enough each year to keep things fresh. The discussions weren't just about the plot; they were about the shared anticipation, the collective gasp at a cliffhanger and the joy of knowing that millions of other fellow children were watching the same thing at the exact same time.
T-Bag and the Pearls of Wisdom is a bit of a classic
Of course, not everything was golden as the memory of those term-time Sundays remains indelibly linked to the dreary feeling of shows like Songs of Praise and Antiques Roadshow, a sad reminder that the weekend was drawing to a close and the busy school-week would start anew.
Today, the world of television is a different beast. Services like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime offer a seemingly infinite library of content, all available at the touch of a button on pretty much any screen.
While the quality of shows has, arguably, never been better, something has been lost; the shared zeitgeist, the common language and parlance of a generation all tuning in together, has been replaced by individual atomised viewing habits.
Watching classic shows like The Mysterious Cities of Gold and Dogtanian with my own children, I'm struck by the power of these finite series. They offer a self-contained world that can be revisited and enjoyed, a perfect blend of nostalgia for me and new discovery for them. It’s a chance to share a piece of my childhood, a time when a limited number of episodes held limitless possibilities. Now, I’d better get to sleep as I have school tomorrow… the problem is, now I’m the teacher!