Many of our grandparents (parents, even) and other ancient relatives grew up in a time before television – before indoor toilets, electricity, aeroplanes, cars … and not surprisingly some were slightly hazy about the technicalities and conventions of the new medium.
Geoff Hawkes
Grandma’s favourite TV programme was "Dixon of Dock Green" (and she wasn’t alone), with that famous signature tune by Tommy Reilly and the celebrated opening line from everyone’s favourite copper, including, according to a survey at the time, the real life Bobbies themselves, ahead of Z Cars and another that I can’t remember.
My grandma was a simple soul, (though not in the half-witted sense) from the Victorian era and couldn’t get her head around the reality, or should I say unreality, of Television drama. I hadn’t realised this till one day while watching the show with her, I happened to remark that Andy Crawford (Peter Byrne) and his TV wife weren’t actually married. I detected a small look of disgust on grandma’s face as I said it but the effect of it didn’t come home to me till I realised a few weeks later she no longer watched the programme, believing that it wasn’t proper for them to be living together out of wedlock. I loved my grandma dearly and couldn’t bring myself to point out how silly she was being not to have understood.
We humans can be quaint at times almost to the point of absurdity – and surely it’s that that gives us character. Think of the people you have known who always have to do things a certain way and have you asking "Why?" Then with a little patience you find yourself loving them for it, just as you discover that they love you for your own dotty little ways too.
I suppose I’m talking about being gracious and tolerant, not easy as we get older and seem to be surrounded by fools – but without it we end up like those we hear about in the media today.
David Brunt
There were three actresses playing Andy’s wife Mary [Dixon/Crawford].
Billie Whitelaw was the first two seasons, followed by Jeanette Hutchinson for eight years. Anna Dawson took over in 1964 for a couple of years. The final appearances were with Hutchinson again, until 1969 when the character was written out.
The other police series could be “No Hiding Place”.
Maurice Fleisher
This story from Geoff Hawkes brings to mind my mother-in-law who was of the same ilk as Geoff’s grandma. She could not bear to watch Australian comedian Barry Humphries when he was playing the part of the inebriated cultural attaché Sir Les Peterson. Those who remember will recall this character was sprawled untidily in a disgusting armchair, very scruffily dressed, red-faced from booze and dribbling down his filthy clothes as he sprouted invective comments towards the camera.
She used to say, “Turn him off, I can’t bear to watch that revolting man” and no amount of explanation would convince her that it was all an act. She was convinced that’s how he was in real life as he looked totally different to all the other characters he portrayed.
Pat Heigham
I had a great aunt, whose house my parents lived in, so she was very like a granny to me. When she was a young girl, there was no electricity – just oil or gas lamps, yet in her lifetime she lived to watch man landing on the moon – on television! Such is the speed of invention.
Alec Bray
I had a couple of great aunts who lived in a small terrace house in Reading. In the early 1960s (yup) they still had only gas lamps. It was gloomy visiting them, not only because of the lighting: every time they made a pot of tea (with tea leaves, of course) they would afterwards drain the water out of the pot and put the tea leaves out to dry. After about the fourth iteration the tea was indescribably horrible.
Alan Stokes
These stories reminded me so much of my paternal ‘Nanna’. She also loved “Dixon of Dock Green”.
As a very young lad, I used to stay with Nanna when my folks were gallivanting about. She lived in a tiny 2-up 2-down with toilet in the garden, round the back of Kingston and was, just as Geoff remembered, a simple soul. Each night she would get ready (undress) for bed downstairs in the lounge as it was warmer. She always put a cover over the TV before putting her nightie on. This fascinated me (no, the ritual not the nightie!!) One day I asked her why she covered the screen. You can probably predict the answer, "So that they can’t see me undress." Even then, probably 5 or 6 years old, I knew they couldn’t. "But, Nanna, they can’t see you, television only works one way." "Well, you never know."
Now, did I switch my webcam off before getting into bed?
Dave Plowman, Keith Wicks
She was just foreseeing the future. The problem is that someone could switch on the web camera again and spy on you via the internet.
So it’s safer to cover the thing with a cloth – just as Alan’s "Nanna" did when undressing near her television set!
