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Oh, how I loved Knight Rider. It was easily my most favourite TV show of the early 1980′s, and the first programme that I watched religiously, which is probably why I still have such fond memories of it.
The pilot episode sets the story, with copy Michael Long being shot in the head and announced dead. Actually he was saved due to a metal plate in his head that deflected the bullet, but which still caused massive facial damage. He was secretly nursed back to health by the Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG), who gave him a new face and a new name – Michael Knight. FLAG was an arm of the Knight Foundation who’s technology division had developed an amazing artificial intelligence that could speak and auto pilot a car (among other things). This technology formed Michael’s new car, the Knight Industries Two Thousand, or KITT for short.
Wooly Willy was originally invented in the 1950′s, but it was in the 1980′s that it started to disappear from our shops. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason for its phasing out was something to do with health and safety laws, considering that iron filings were one its main constituent parts. It was such a simple toy, yet it provided hours of fun on long car journeys.
When at primary school I remember there being a number of different types of glue available when it came to activities such as junk modelling (making things out of old cereal packets and yoghurt pots) and paper craft (e.g. making a Mother’s Day card). The teachers would generally ration glue out in little tubs for you to use, and provide you with a little plastic glue spatula, in an effort to stop all the schools paintbrushes from getting gummed up.
Of all the creations of animation studio Cosgrove Hall the best loved has to be DangerMouse. First appearing on our screens in 1981, the worlds best secret agent, and his assistant Penfold the hamster, continuously thwarted the plans of the evil Baron Silas Greenback for 10 series. The cartoon paid homage to spy films and TV shows, but also to the classic black and white serials like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, as each story was split into several 5-10 minute episodes with cliffhanger endings.
During a test of a group of new prototype military robots, a storm breaks out. Lightning strikes some powerlines, which causes a surge that grounds itself in one of the robots. Surprisingly, the robot doesn’t appear to have been damaged, and with the test aborted the group of robots are ordered back inside. However, it soon becomes apparent that the affected robot – Number 5 – may not have been completely unaffected after all. Number 5 starts to get distracted by things, and eventually ends up being accidentally knocked into the back of a garbage vehicle.
The UK decimalised its monetary system on February 15th 1971, and one of the new coins to replace the old system of pounds, shillings and pence was the Half Penny coin. Today it seems hard to believe that there was ever a need for such a small denomination, but these days 1p is such a small amount of money in real terms that it’s almost not worth having a One Pence coin. The only reason it still exists, I am convinced, is for purely psychological reasons. As an example, consider this. Why does £99.99 seem to feel a substantially smaller price than £100.00?
