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I would have been able to pick Josh Widdicombe out in a line up for a fair few years – but I only feel like I’ve got to know him intimately since listening to the twice weekly podcast he does with Rob Beckett. I’ve never seen most of these TV shows, being American, but Josh describes them in perfect and hilarious detail! I also think the book makes an excellent point about the importance of television in the pre-digital era. Josh re-lives his childhood through the TV programmes and adverts he watched which brings back a lot of memories and laughs about some I did not watch being far older than Josh. Matt Phillips, publisher for Blink and John Blake, acquired world rights in a major deal from Flo Howard at Off The Kerb.
This is a brilliant book – funny, clever, well written, brilliantly observed and a roller coaster of reminiscing with a dollop of popular culture from the 2000s onwards thrown in too. Like Lou I have bowel problems – not the same one, but still ‘anal wouldn’t help’ (this is a reference from the book – not me being completely weird when writing this blog post! Using a different television show of the time as its starting point for each chapter Watching Neighbours Twice a Day. Using a different television show of the time as it's starting point for each chapter Watching the Nineties is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of 90s television and culture. TV seemed more innocent, not the stream of rubbish like Love Island, Made in Chelsea, Married at First Sight, I'm A Celebrity that dominates our screens now.
Ostensibly a quickfire quiz, The Guessing Game is really a show that pushes facts aside in favour of flights of fancy and rewards the funniest, luckiest and most bizarre guesses. Together it tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one else could watch it with them. It’s likely his childhood like a lot of us was pretty unmemorable but I would have liked to have known more and also more about his climb to comedy.
From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother to lock the front door, they didn't even have a key.stood for ‘Birthday Club’ which was also not entirely accidentally, the name of the short segments of TV, ‘B. Widdicombe said: “Plenty has been written about the music, art or sport of the 90s but none of these things were as central to our daily lives as the television. I was super excited when the book landed on my doormat – and even got goosebumps from reading the chapter titles (which are all named after different 90s TV programmes) – as they brought back lots of memories. However, I am over six years older than him (he was born in 1983, I was born at the end of 1976) and here it really shows. I loved reading the references to things I had entirely forgotten about (You Bet, the theme tune to Big Break, the Martins in Neighbours).
I haven't previously paid much attention to Josh's comedy career but I can honestly say this was the funniest book that I've read in a while, Josh has a sarcastic, dry sense of humour and I found myself regularly chuckling whilst reading. This may result in small marks to the dustjacket and title page, please also bear in mind that each signature will be a little different from the one we show here. You can hear Josh’s voice in the book (and no, I didn’t have the audiobook on at the same time) it is just written in his distinctive style. The Big Breakfast, Nightmare, the twins from Funhouse who ruined our chances of every bagging the boys in our year. The book travels through the decade, looking at various 90s TV programmes which were either British or popular in Britain, including Get Your Own Back, Knightmare, Live and Kicking, The Simpsons, Neighbours, Noel’s House Party, Men Behaving Badly, The X-Files and Gladiators.
There's jamming in the kitchen, laughter in the lounge and poetry on the landing - and a whole lot more fun and frolics going on upstairs. The Simpsons and I’m Alan Partridge: These chapters are essentially songs of praise about the brilliance of 1990s TV comedy. I’m a few years younger than Josh and I didn’t watch as much TV as he did (it sounds like no one watched as much TV as he did) but I remembered most of the shows and other content. We're always happy to answer any questions or queries you might have, please get in touch using one of the methods below. This started during the pandemic as ‘Lockdown Parenting Hell’ and has subsequently been rebranded ‘Parenting Hell’.
In true Josh Widdicombe style, it is a joy to read, it is written very well and takes you down a trip of memory lane. There are no chapters on Twin Peaks, Our Friends in the North, Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse, Cracker or Queer as Folk.And even better, it's packed with useful tips, inside knowledge and hilarious real-life stories from dads who know exactly what it's like to take your first steps as a new father - this book will get you totally prepared for the biggest thing to even happen in your life! It's also funny how his team Plymouth and mine Brighton started the decade in the Second Division only to tumble down to the Fourth tier in roughly the same seasons.
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