American chat show host Jimmy Kimmel has just been taken off air by ABC/Disney after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – which is supposed to be an independent media regulator, but has acted in a very partisan manner. However, this is nothing new. Back in 1970, the pro-segregation ex-Governor of Alabama, Lester Maddox,…
It may seem incredible but Britain beat Facebook by four years to create a social media website that reunited old friends across the globe – and became an early online sensation. But, as is so often the case with Great British inventions, other countries took the idea, improved on it, and ultimately dominated. So let’s…
It’s hard to remember a world – only a quarter of a century ago – when most people had no public visibility. Imagine it. A world without social media influencers, TikTok trolls, YouTube channels, and bots. The only way you ever got your name or face in public was if a newspaper published your letter…
The 1990s was a decade of unbridled clubbing hedonism the likes of which we’ve not seen since. I experienced it in full – but remember surprisingly little. Or maybe that’s not such a surprise. Regrets – none. Wish to repeat it – no. Glad to have witnessed this cavalcade of dissoluteness – yes. So, let…
OK – I’m going to nail my musical colours to the mast first and declare that back in the 1990s, I was in the Blur army and never really warmed to Oasis. To me, and many others, they were standard bearers for a Laddism that seemed to be dragging us back to the worst aspects…
Two plastic balls linked by a skinny rope caused the most ridiculous moral panic at at the start of the 1970s. Clackers was a toy that, it was claimed, could leave you blinded or seriously injured. Very rapidly it went from being the must-have item in the school playground to a shunned and dangerous creation….
Doctor Who was a 20th century TV success story that soared but then crashed as historian Tony McMahon discovers
Corporal punishment was a constant feature of 1970s schools reducing children to a terrorised state as TV historian Tony McMahon remembers
Night clubs in the 1980s and 1990s were often subjected to police raids for various reasons as TV historian Tony McMahon recalls
Clubbing in the 1990s meant when you left your front door, you had no idea when you’d return home as Tony McMahon remembers
