The Dystopian Times, 14. The Discovery of Old Favorites.

Nowadays, television is boring. We don't subscribe to any television platform, so we can only see the open channels. Those channels now even have paying channels, where you can watch exclusive series and shows. So, what one can see is a rehash of the same movies of the past ten or fifteen years, and the same reruns of the same television shows ever since the year 2000.  That, and reality shows that have precious little reality.

I miss the shows we used to have back when I was a teenager. Not that many of those were much more intelligent than the ones we can see now, but there were some gems among them. The funny ones were funny, and the drama was drama. Many gems were on the PBS channel, and were British productions.

I remember among them, the documentary The World at War. I don't remember if I watched it because I was fascinated by World War II history, or if that particular time period fascinated me because I watched this documentary. Another documentary was The Story of English. I loved it, and bought the accompanying book, which I brought with me, and is staring me in the face right now. I found that documentary series once, and downloaded it, so now I can watch it whenever I want.

Another documentary I found and downloaded, was The Day the Universe Changed. I was marvelled by the explanations in each episode back in my teenage years. The descriptions of what people thought, and discovered, and their impact on how we view the world in the present, was mind-blowing to a young person then. It's mind-blowing to the young English student whom I have watch some of the episodes. He, too, is fascinated by that series.

And who can forget Vincent Price as the presenter of the Mystery! hour? I watched many Agatha Christies back then. And I was introduced to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was produced by Granada TV from 1984 to 1994. To me, Jeremy Brett was Holmes, and when I got my hands on the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes, his was the face that came to mind as I read. The actor's mannerisms were Holmes' mannerisms in the books. No other movie about Holmes came even close. The only one that slightly matched was the modern-day Holmes of Elementary, played by Jonny Lee Miller. None other came close. What a pleasant surprise I got today, toodling around on the internet, when I discovered I could watch all the episodes of the old series. This afternoon I watched A Scandal in Bohemia, and remembered my love of the series I hadn't seen since thirty years ago.

Another series that I saw on the Mystery! hour was Campion. It's not a very long series, and not all Margery Allingham's books were adapted. But its appearance on television coincided with my discovery of Allingham's books at a time in my life when I needed the utmost distraction. I remember finding the first book, reading it practically in one sitting, and then ransacking the bookstores to buy all the rest. There was only one I couldn't find, Pearls Before Swine, which seemed to be out of print somehow. My joy was supreme when, checking titles in a tightly packed second hand bookstore off Harvard Square, I found it. The series was mostly faithful to the books, and I fell in love with bespectacled Albert Campion, a gentleman solving puzzles. I also found I can watch it now on internet.

Such interesting and absorbing television programs are mostly a thing of the past. The few that exist now, exist behind a paywall. At least, internet can help us get in touch with that past television culture.

Life continues.