Child Of The 1980’s

Hands up who still uses videotapes?  I guess there are still a fair proportion of people who use them still for recording programmes off the telly, but with the advent of recordable DVD and Personal Video Recorder systems such as TiVo and Sky+ the humble videotape is gradually being squeezed out of the market.  For pre-recorded films it’s now pretty much impossible to buy videos it would seem.

Anyway, a little while ago I wrote about the different kinds of videotape formats that existed when video recorders first became available.  Whilst VHS ended up ruling the roost, and is what most people will immediately think of when they talk about videotapes, there were also rival formats Betamax and Video 2000.  So, cast your mind back, ring your parents if necessary, and let us know which format your family first had at home…

The 1980’s spawned some great TV shows abour super charged, high technology vehicles, which were almost always black in colour. Knight Rider is surely the best known example, with KITT the amazing talking car with turbo boost, bullet proof body work and a built in Mattel Intellivision! Then there was Airwolf, the heavily armed and stupendously speedy helicopter, and of course Street Hawk the motorbike, again capable of crazy speeds and fitted with all manner of weapons.

There’s no doubt that any of these vehicles would make your journey to work each day much more enjoyable, and would certainly turn some heads (especially parking a helicopter in the car park) but which of these would you most like to own yourself?

Is there a word that adequately describes a biscuit/chocolate bar such as a Jacob’s Club or Trio?  You know, the kind that come in packs of around six and are completely covered in chocolate.  I don’t like using the word biscuit to describe them as that always conjures up an image of Digestives or Bourbons to me, whilst chocolate bars are something like a Mars or Twix.

Anyway, I wrote about Jacob’s Club a little while ago so this week I’m interested to find out which flavour of Jacob’s Club was (or indeed still is) your favourite.

Last weekend, to mark the penultimate episode of the current series of Doctor Who (it was a real cliffhanger, wasn’t it?) I asked which of the actors who have portrayed the Doctor was your favourite.  David Tennant appears to be doing very well indeed, although Tom Baker narrowly made it into second place, which didn’t really surprise me.  I expected him to do a bit better to be honest…

Anyway, the thrilling conclusion airs tonight (can’t wait!) and since the best known of enemies the Daleks feature, I thought we’d stick with the Timelord theme this week and ask which of the Doctors enemies had you cowering behind the sofa the most as a child, or indeed still have you cowering today!  Of course there are far too many enemies to choose from, so we’ll boil it down to the obvious two!

Have you been watching the latest series of Doctor Who on BBC1?  Only a couple more episodes left to go!  What do you think?  Is it better than the original series?  Do you like David Tennant?  Or are you still fond of the classic years of Tom Baker?  This weeks survey is to find out which of the various timelord incarnations from over the years is your favourite.  How will the Doctors of the 1980’s fare I wonder?

And before anyone says I missed Peter Cushing, apparently his Doctor wasn’t actually a timelord…  I’m not counting those actors from the mass regeneration Children In Need sketch either…

There can’t be a kid in the land who hasn’t built something out of Lego at some point in their life. Lego has always been a firm favourite of mine, simply because you can use it to create anything you want. There have been many kinds of Lego over the years, but the late 1970’s and early 1980’s saw the introduction of the familiar poseable Lego man that is still in use today. So, were you a Lego Town kid, did you prefer Lego Space or were you more of a Technic fan? Let us know!

This weeks survey isn’t particularly dedicated to the 1980’s, but it is themed around being a child. A teenager, more specifically. Every kid had to go to school (it’s the law) and of course each day was filled with a variety of different lessons on different subjects, some of which you liked, and others which you didn’t.

So, we’d like to know which was your least favourite subject at secondary school. Foreign languages have been grouped together since different schools favoured different languages, but I’ve left the three science subjects separately since even if your school made you do some form of combined sciences course, the subjects taught normally still fit neatly into a single scientific grouping.

The 1980’s was unquestionably the most popular period for the Australian Soap Opera.  Our screens were full of them from The Young Doctors and The Sullivans to Prisoner Cell Block H and Sons and Daughters - how many of those had you blotted from your memory, eh?  Sorry to drag them back into your mind!

 Of course, the real heat was between the “lunchtime and again at teatime” soaps of Neighbours on BBC1 and Home and Away on ITV.  Both appealed to teenagers due to having several teenage characters, a member of the Minogue family, and lots of Aussie slang (Rack off! I saw you playing hookie this alvo, you dag).  Funny now how they’ve both been relegated to Channel 5.  Anyway, this weeks survey question is…