Friday 17 January 2020

DOES CALLAN HAVE A BUDGIE...?



Because of chronic fatigue, I find it nigh impossible nowadays to watch anything on TV and give it my full attention, as my mind soon drifts off or goes into shutdown mode.  Often, within 5 or 10 minutes, I've fallen asleep and only wake up once it's all over.  However, with these limitations, I've been watching CALLAN and BUDGIE (in 10 minute segments) and finally managed to cover all 12 surviving monochrome episodes of the former show.  The DVD collection of Callan was issued in 2010, and the programmes contained therein hadn't been seen in 40-odd years, which means it's been over 50 years since I first and last saw them on their initial broadcast between 1967 and '69*.

(*Except for the ARMCHAIR THEATRE pilot, A MAGNUM For SCHNEIDER, which was repeated as part of the TV HEAVEN series in 1992.) 

I last saw Budgie back in 1985 when it was repeated on Channel 4 (I think), which was 35 years ago.  As mentioned in a previous post, when they were first broadcast (in two series) back in 1971 and '72, I saw the last 5 episodes of the 2nd series over the first month in the new house we'd moved to, and in which I again live today.  Last night, I persevered and managed (between sleeps) to watch the first of those last 5 shows, so in 4 episodes' time, I'll have reached the end of my quest to re-experience that particular aspect of my past, before moving on to another with the colour episodes of Callan.

Here's the thing though.  Back in 1991, I bought the house number-plate from the then-current (and now sadly-deceased) tenant of my former abode, and affixed it to the door of the room in which I now type this.  That means I've now passed the number-plate many more times in my present domicile than in my former one, as I only stayed there for 6 years and 7 months (which was around half my life at the time).  I therefore had a decision to make in regard to those last 5 Budgie episodes, which was this:  Should I watch them in the living-room where I first saw them back in '72, or should I watch them in the room above which sports the number-plate of my former house where I viewed all the preceding ones?

You see, while I find it alluring to re-create a 'moment' in the same room it first occurred 48 years before, I find it just as alluring to imagine the past as it could've happened had we never flitted from our former home in '72.  After all, I'd still be watching those last 5 episodes in the same house I first saw them, but in a room bearing the actual number of the previous house in which I'd viewed the preceding 21 - the best of both worlds, as it were.  That may not mean anything to you, but I find it appealing in some way to indulge in a game of 'what if...?', as opposed to what did.  (Try it, it's fun.)

True, a large dollop of imagination is required in the process, but I've got that in spades.  Feel free to tell me how mad I am in the comments section.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've just bought a packet of 8 Penquin biscuits which takes me back to being in Infants school :D

Kid said...

Hope you're not going to eat 'em all at once, CJ - you'll get fat. (I'm talking about the infants.)

Anonymous said...

I deserve to be sent back to Infants school for spelling Penguin incorrectly!

Kid, have you ever watched Call The Midwife? I'd never watched a single episode until the 2018 Christmas special but now I've become quite a fan. The series began in 2012 but was set in 1957 and the story has advanced in "real time" so the current 2020 episodes are set in 1965 which means it's getting very close to my own birth date. I thought you might enjoy the '50s and '60s period setting - that's what makes it interesting for me. I've been downloading various episodes from iplayer that I missed first time around.

Kid said...

I knew you meant penguins though, CJ, so didn't bother donning my pedant's cap. Call The Midwife? Nah, I don't really watch much telly (Dracula being an exception) 'cos I can't stay awake usually. Even when I watch a DVD, I have to watch it in instalments between sleeps, which takes me forever to get through things. Besides, I hear it's written with a feminist agenda, making men look selfish and women downtrodden, and I find such attempts to judge the past by the standards of the present rather tedious.



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