I was thinking about when I went to bed as a kid the other day.
I recall watching creepy films on TV late at night but that was later on when I was 11 or 12 maybe on Friday and Saturday.
Weekends were different to school days. I could stay up later, except Sunday night.
Sunday was that strange day between Saturday and Monday and with School starting again it meant an early night once more much to my utter disgust!
School nights I think I went to bed around 8pm - and Sundays - when I was about 10 but to be honest I'm foggy about this! 8pm sounds so damn early!
When did you go to bed as a youngster readers? Did you go straight to sleep?
As a young nipper, dad marched me up the stairs at 7pm prompt. Friday night was a frustrating exception to the rule. I could stay up until 10pm, then I'd be marched up that wooden hill. I still feel robbed and quite annoyed with mum and dad. Their 10pm last post was never quite late enough for me to catch the old horror films my school friends talked about. I enjoyed my childhood, but I was glad when I outgrew that one Woodsy :)
ReplyDeleteNo more early nights! The name of your memoirs maybe Tony! Hope you've caught up with all those creepy films. So did you not see the series of films marketed under the name Appointment with Fear?
DeleteYes, Appointment with Fear... that's something I haven't heard mentioned in a very long time Woodsy. Thankfully I'm pretty much up to speed with most of the old horror films I was banished from watching back then :)
DeleteI honestly can't remember but I tended to be in my bedroom anyway, I had my own tv from about 10 and would rather watch it in bed in the evening as it was easier to concentrate without conversations going on and it was quite relaxing. I've no sense of feeling that I was forced to bed by a certain time but I suppose I must've been?
ReplyDeleteBlimey, you had your own TV Kev? That's one well equipped-bedroom. I left home when I was 17 in '78 and I'm not sure portable tellies were around that much then. Maybe in caravans! Oddly enough I've never ever had a telly in my bedroom, not even now, although I do have a portable TV/ VHS player I can out anywhere.
DeleteI was really lucky; my parents allowed me to stay up until the time they went to bed, even on a school night around 10:30, 11PM, even what I was in infants school. But I was expected to get up to go to school at the correct time the following morning! It helped instil into me a sense of responsibility and to understand the consequences of my actions. And no, I never fell asleep in class.
ReplyDeleteIt also enabled me to see some of the great 1960's shows the other kids never got to see, and listen to Late Night Extra on the Radio.
However, I remember one of the kids in school mentioned to the teachers, quite innocently, that his parents allowed him to stay up late, and it got them into real hot water. Shortly afterwards the teachers started asking everybody to tell them what time their parents sent them to bed. Mindful of what happened to that other kids parents, when I was asked, I LIED, and fabricated a time around 8PM!! Besides, I didn't want the school authorities getting in the way of my TV viewing.
And now, I'm so glad I did.
Wow Bill, your Ma and Pa were progressive thinkers! No bedtime! Brill. Only endless pocket money, bottomless pepsi and School closed forever could top it! So did you notice a big change to programming after the 9pm watershed back then?
DeleteAnd of course not forgetting my Grandmother, whose home it was. To be honest, a lot of the stuff went over my head, although I do remember watching a few Tales of Edgar Wallace, and Armchair Theatres'. The really interesting stuff was on just after 8PM. Like Danger Man, Man in a Suitcase, The Barron and the Champions.
DeleteMy parents were avid Coronation St watchers, which bored me silly. They also used to show some of the Horror and Sci Fi 'B' Movies late at night, along with what was known as the "British Kitchen Sink Realism" films too. Like the Leather Boys. [Oh er misses]
Curiously, the the first film of the "of the Dammed" series I saw, was Children of the Dammed. There was a creepy disused church in the next village to mine which looked a lot like the one in the film! - A pretty good dose of the scary's... Although the only time I had a nightmare as the result of a TV show was from Dr Who, and the Ice Warriors.
Sometimes we'd watch a late night film or TV Series as a family. I can't remember the stuff from when I was really little at the moment, but I do remember watching "The Adventures of Don Quick" - which was an adult comedy Sci-Fi series, and in particular the "Love Reflector" episode. And the embarrassing comments my mother made, when one of the characters couldn't get out of his pressure suit to jump in the sack with one of the female protagonists.
And The Prisoner, which was a late night affair for us here in Wales. And the child in me completely understood the last episode, even though the parents didn't, and it baffled my Grandmother.
They let him go!
And the whole family favourite "Til Death Us Do Part" - a proper dose of after watershed telly. I'm so glad I was given that gift of freedom when I was a kid.
DeleteThe Prisoner was filmed in your home country Bill so how come it was on late at night? I visited Port meirion when I stayed at Abersoch as a kid. Very fancy. I don't think I associated it with the TV show but I can't remember. Till Death Do Us Part was quite a political affair wasn't it? Lots of ideological debates on the sofa. My folks loved it and their small statue of Harold Wilson watched too from his perch on the mantlepeice! I've never heard anyone else say Skarskit!
DeleteDuring the original ITV Network run of the Prisoner, here in Wales we were having the imposition of our TV contractor [TWW] taken away from us, and a new contractor [Harlech/HTV] put in its place which a lot of people really hated.
DeleteConsequently, the upheaval affected programme scheduling. Captain Scarlet didn't arrive until sometime in May 1968, and the Prisoner eventually arrived in the summer of 1969. As it was judged semi-horror with regular forced drug injections and asphyxiation by weather balloon [Rover] - they put it on late at night. After the Ten O'Clock News.
Till Death Us Do Part was excellent! I remember watching the very first series, and it was fall about laughing, even as a seven year old I got some of the jokes. Warren Mitchell was absolutely superb as the obnoxious snob and racist Alf Garnett, who hated his son-in-law with a passion and dubbed him the Randy Scouse Git, because his daughter was so besotted with him.
We used to really look forward to it, and it was a great way to round of a Sunday, before retiring to bed for School the following morning.