Some readers may not remember the early days of television when the screen measured nine inches diagonally across and the electrical bits were encased in art deco wooden furniture. However, by 1957 screen sizes had increased, and 12” became the must-have for those wanting to keep up with the Jones’s.
A ‘Tele’ was expensive, and ordinary folk were conscious of its fragile nature. Valves from Mullard or Ultra were expensive replacements, but it was the phrase, “The Tube must be going,” that struck fear into the heart of the household. When this happened confirmation would be sought first from neighbours. but then Mr Meakin from the electrical shop would call on his way home. His visit would be awaited in much the same way as that of the Doctor paying his final visit to the elderly sick aunt living in the front room. The family would gather around the Tele and listen as Claud Meakin solemnly intoned, “I am afraid there is nothing else we can do and you must prepare yourself for it to happen any day soon.”
As a teenager used to spending his early years out of doors, the Tele did not play much part in my life, although I do remember running home from work to catch the last fifteen minutes of that test match in 1956 when off-spinner Jim Laker took nineteen Australian wickets for ninety runs.
Early TV pictures were grey and grainy, and viewers were expected to behave as people did in the theatre. Intervals were placed between programmes, and I remember a particular one during which a silent boat progressed up a river. So important were these intervals that viewers wrote letters of complaint when, on one occasion, a programme started just before the boat went round a bend viewers had not seen before. However, when commercial TV started intervals were filled with adverts.
In those early days TV played a peripheral part in our lives, and on those evenings when we were not at the chapel club, it came on about seven in the evening and went off at ten after the National Anthem. Its flickering pictures filled those dark winter hours when the coal fire was the brightest light in the house.
How different to now! Where in many homes, it comes on at day-break and goes off in the early hours. It is no longer an optional side show for a life lived outside the home, it has become the centre of a life lived in the home.
The UK and the USA share the world’s top spot for viewing with 28 hours each week. This is five more than Germany, France and Ireland. The US also happens to have the highest obesity rate at 30% with the UK third on 23%. (France is 9% and Germany 12%) And whilst some might expect this data to also reflect figures for life-span, the European average of 80 years is pretty well the same across the continent.
All this tells us that people are watching an awful lot more (some would say a lot more awful) TV than they used to. It also leads to the staggering statistic that, taking account of sleep, 28 weekly hours of TV for 80 years means 17.67 years in front of the TV. These figures make me wonder how anyone can still say, “I haven’t got time!”
Self deception however is not new, and concerns about use of time can be found in the Old and New Testaments. Come to think about it, what is life but time! And so, despite not all TV being lost time, my guess is that we still waste twelve out of the seventeen years we watch.
Rural folk are usually more solitary than others but still get great value from time spent at local events. They like to listen and talk, and so some churches have created spaces for time to socialise after service. Usually the discussion is about sport and local events but, just as a TV programme can spice up discussion, so too can thoughts about a sermon.
We all know that time is precious and not to be taken for granted, and this is shown by the following tale from a friend in Idaho.
A forty-five year old woman had a heart attack and whilst on the operating table had a near-death-experience. She asked God “Is my time up?” “No,” was the reply, “There are forty three years left.” Mightily cheered by this, she decided live it up, and so asked the surgeons for immediate implants, face-lift, liposuction. whitened teeth and even a change of hair!
Confident of the years ahead and homeward bound, she stepped off the pavement to cross the road ……… under a bus!
In heaven she crossly demanded to know why God hadn’t held her back.
A still small voice said; ……. “I didn’t recognise you.”
View from the Pew 