I Love 1970's

"I Love 1970's" was a successful journey down memory lane for many BBC2 viewers, which was in no way a comprehensive history lesson of the time (the 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy had no place here), but it didn't pretend to be.

Each episode looked at some of the trends, people and pop-culture highs and lows of each year of the decade (one year per episode), with period-specific hosts (Jimmy Savile, David Cassidy, Dennis Waterman, Lynda Carter, Roobarb and Custard etc), plenty of footage of the time - complete with ads ("For mash get Smash") - and guests and talking heads a go go. This was, it has to be said, the low point of the series; in all too many cases the same people kept turning up (who is Gina Yashere anyway, and why did she pop up throughout the series?) - hearing Kenneth Johnson talk about "The Incredible Hulk" is far more interesting than hearing Zoe Ball on the same subject, for the simple reason that he actually ran the show and she didn't. (Although the inclusion of Joseph Harnell's piano music from the end of each episode - plus the Universal TV music - was lovely.)

Otherwise, cheap television at its best. Followed by "I Love 1980s."

The trouble with this 1970s pop culture series was factual inaccuracies and what some judged to be "70's hype". The Space hopper, featured in "I Love 1971", was actually available in Britain at least as early as 1969 and a trend then, and Personal Stereos were invented in 1979, but not available here until 1980. Many such inaccuracies punctuated the series, and the fact that the 1970s were a time of misery for many was totally ignored.

It would be accurate to say that "I Love The 1970s" actually covered the pop culture of 1967 to 1982. Many of the things featured in each year had actually been commonplace since the 1960s or were unavailable until the 1980s.

The series was disappointing - misinforming a younger generation of "70s fans" - and had the knock-on effect of also making the 1980s series inaccurate as much early 1980s pop culture had been wrongly featured in the 70s series!

I couldn't agree more with what has already been mentioned about the inaccuracies, and irritation at the inclusion of comments from people like Natalie Casey, who was barely a toddler back then, and in the 1980s. It appears that too many of these programmes have been researched by twentysomethings, but where the hell did they get their info from? The internet? Did they talk to anyone who actually lived through the decade? As for no DVD, maybe the inclusion of TV ads in the programmes has prevented this, as they seem to be quite hard to get clearance for - hence no "Greatest TV Ads" DVDs on sale...Except on Ebay.

"I Love the 1970s" was a show which sought to create the kind of nostalgia about the 1970s which we all enjoyed about the 1950s in the 70s. It failed.

The main problem for fans of the show is people who remember the era without rosy coloured specs and those with access to newspaper archives. Flared trousers, Lava Lamps, space hoppers and Afghan coats were all selling like hot cakes in the late 1960s, and the personal stereo and many other featured items were not available until the 1980s.

And then there were mistakes in years within the decade. For instance, Punk took flight commercially at the end of 1976. It was more a trend of 1977, but "I Love 1976" presented Punk as the trend of the year.

The most ridiculous thing was that the show left out details of the recession and just what a slog life could be for adults in the 70s. They were hard times for many. But (mainly as perceived in retrospect) social conditions of the 1980s were much commented upon in the "I Love 1980s" series.

I lived through the 1970s and did not recognise a great deal of what was presented as "70s" in these shows. I would not recommend them for serious 70's historians.