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The 100 Most Influential Television Programmes In My Life

An Introduction

In 2006, I began a project which I naively believed could be completed within a couple of months. It was called The 100 Greatest Television Programmes In The World...Ever!

My list was inspired by a newspaper article sent my way by LH. It was a countdown of - supposedly - the worst television programmes in history. As I browsed through the list, I couldn't believe that many of my favourite shows were contained within and that I had forgotten about so many of them. Most importantly, I became aware of the huge part that television had played in my life.

Whenever I think of a favourite programme, not only do I recall the details of the show, I also remember the things I was doing at the time. Likewise, if I remember a happy or embarrassing moment in my life - getting locked out of my house aged fourteen, for example - there is usually a television theme tune or catchphrase somewehere in the background. To this day, I can't hear Cilla Black singing Surprise, Surprise without feeling the urge to run a bath and pack my school bag ready for Monday morning. And I'm nearly thirty.

That's when I hit upon the idea of the 100 Greatest... blog. A series of autobiographical instalments using television as a backdrop. I soon got to work and the initial blogs received a good reaction. As time went by, they received attention from various television and nostalgia websites and forums. Again, the reception was good. My experiences of schools programmes were even used in a seminar on children's television.

However, I soon came to realise that the title of the series didn't really do it justice and, ultimately, this led to my lack of enthusiasm for the project. Every now and again, I received emails and comments asking why I hadn't put programmes such as Shameless, Skins or Ashes To Ashes in the list. Others asked how I could put something like Give Us A Clue in a countdown of the greatest television programmes. Even more questioned my ordering, offended that one show was lower than another in the list.

But everybody had missed the point, and that was my fault. I should have spent more time thinking of an accurate title and I should have explained the project in more detail in the first place.

My chosen programmes were never likely to appear in any other 'acceptable' list of the greatest television shows. But that was never the point. To me, if something influences me or makes some sort of lasting impression, it's great. Even if it's bad.

Likewise, the numbering system meant nothing. It was simply a means of letting me know how many programmes I had written about, and also a way of limiting the series. As anybody who knows me will testify, I have a habit of writing mammoth essays, and the project had the potential to go on for eternity.

But above all, the series was far more personal than the title suggested. Even I didn't realise until about halfway through, but the blogs were about me, not television. That's not to say that a good bit of television reminiscing couldn't be had by all, though.

Time has passed so quickly and I never did get around to completing the list. It's been stuck at number fifty for two years. Thankfully, compiling Blog Of Two Head has made me re-read those blogs (they were originally published on Prawn Cufflinks) and - even if I do say so myself - they're still really good. In fact, they're good enough to inspire me to complete the project. However, this time there'll be a few changes.

- The title has now been changed to The 100 Most Influential Television Programmes In My Life.

- Rather than writing ten blogs discussing ten programmes at a time, there will now be one hundred separate blogs for each show. Each instalment will be tagged 100 Television Shows, which means that you can just click the link to read all relevant blogs. I've also put a permanent link on the sidebar.

- The original order has now been changed. I've broken up the six blogs previously published and I'll be posting them at regular intervals. I'll write new instalments for the other forty-odd programmes and mix them in with those already written.

Apart from that, everything will be the same. I'll use pictures and videos where necessary and I'll continue to embarrass myself with more tales from my past. All this to a backdrop of some of the most memorable television in history.

And this time I'll finish it.