I was born in the mid-1970s when there were three television channels in the UK: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. That was it. If you wanted to watch TV, you had very little choice about what to watch and no choice about when to watch it.
If your favourite programme was broadcast at 8pm on a Tuesday, you had to be there to watch it at 8pm on a Tuesday. If you missed it, you missed it. And that was that. No video recorders. No internet. No streaming. No catch-up. You missed it.
This notion is unthinkable today. We are used to choice. It is assumed. It’s practically a human right. Go into a shop to buy a biro, you expect three different brands, four different colours, boxes of different quantities of pens, and one pen with all four colours. And you expect a choice of shops.
Why the medieval Church was 'terrified' of John Wycliffe
Have you ever wondered why heretics were burned in England during the 15th and 16th centuries? We can thank John …