I Love 1980s was a series broadcast in 2001 with a simple but slightly patronising format.
A celebrity looks back at a year in the 1980s. With the help of some talking heads they review some cultural or newsworthy moments. There is always the lingering suspicion that the talking head probably saw a clip of some tv show or movie about 5 minutes before they start talking about it. One of the year's top movie was Fame which to me spawned a much better and successful television spin off a few years later.
My abiding memories of 1980 was a recession and lots of factories closing down. Suddenly everyone in my street seemed to be out of a job. The show rather ignores this.
Well after he got shot, this was the year of J R Ewing. Who else to introduce the first show but Larry Hagman. Here was a man who knew he struck oil when Dallas took off. Hagman was the opposite of JR Ewing but knew how to play up to his persona. The whole summer of 1980 was the press and public speculating as to who shot JR which was the cliffhanger ending to the series finale.
In 1980, my older brother suddenly started to talk about strange Italian men. I thought it was that pirate video of The Godfather featuring someone called Giorgio Armani and Sergio Tacchini. All of a sudden young men in the north of England wanted to dress up as middle aged golfers.
Hagman seems to be a bit lost with New Wave music. The influence of Kraftwerk is ignored but the program does look at emerging electronic bands. Human League had a lead singer who could only afford half a hair cut. Andy McCluskey of OMD desperately needed dance lessons.
The summer of 1980 was Britain going Olympics crazy. However most of us were focused on the middle distance showdown between Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. The show decided to concentrate on swimmer Duncan Goodhew presumably because he agreed to take part.
