I Love 1980's

Unfortunately there are countless anachronisms present in this series which detracted from it, plus one wonders if some of the minor celebrity contributors were old enough to really have lived through the decade and experienced much of what they commented on!

Following the success of I love 1970s we carry on with the nostalgia craze with a series of 10 x 90 minutes programmes on the 1980s. Each programme examining a year of the 80s

Larry Hagman presented the first programme, I love 1980, a big year for good ol JR. Other's may think he should had dodged a bullet.

The show is in essence looks at the films, TV shows, songs, news and cultural aspects of that year aided by commentary from the people who were there supposedly. I think it was more accurate to say the Z list celebrities were shown a reel beforehand and told to 'reminiscence' about it.

I have to admit the series thrives on nostalgia, its frothy fun, brings back memories and was not always 100 percent accurate. The celebrity comments could be annoying at times and yet strangely enjoyable despite the flaws.

I`ve only got a patchy recollection of the 1980`s since I decided to spend much of it in an alcohol induced coma , and if you can recall the music of 1985-86-87 then you can hardly blame me . But even I can point out the amateurish factual errors this nostalgic series made

1984 for example includes a feature on " The brat pack " most especially THE BREAKFAST CLUB complete with the title song by Simple Minds . Only thing is THE BREAKFAST CLUB was released in 1985 !

Same with 1988 which was presented by the teenage mutant hero turtles who didn`t introduce Britain to turtle mania untill a year later . The programme even showed a clip of the film which didn`t get released untill 1990 ! Same with BILL AND TED`S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE which hit cinema`s in 1989 not as stated here in 1988 !

If the BBC want to employ researchers can they employ ones who are capable of doing what they`re paid to do and that is to RESEARCH something . I could have done a better job myself drunk or sober

Do you remember Rubik's Cubes? Jason Donovan? Rick Astley? Trans-Formers? He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe? A-Ha? Adam & The Ants? Boxer shorts? Knight Rider? Spandau Ballet? Nik Kershaw? Bros?

This is a ten-part series, each hour-long part covering a year at a time, from 1980 to 1989 inclusive. Stars and stars-to-be of that era reminisce about fads, fashions, toy ranges, merchandise and developments that occurred in this decade in a humorous and entertaining fashion.

Definitely worth a laugh or two, particularly for people that were children and/or teenagers in that decade.

Sadly, "I Love 1980s" was spoilt by poor research and the poor research on the "I Love 1970s" series also affected this series badly.

Several items of 1980s pop culture had wrongly been included in the 70s programmes, and in consequence the early 80s looked curiously empty without the CB radio craze, the release of the Rubik's Cube (based on the Hungarian Magic Cube and named and released in 1980), the personal stereo (invented in Japan in 1979, released in Britain in 1980) or the impact of Space Invaders. Indeed, Pac-Man was included in "I Love 1980" but was not actually available to play.

The show also seemed to have an agenda of portraying the decade as greedy - although for the first few years we were knee deep in recession. Many of us were struggling financially, and there were thriving environmental and charitable movements to counter balance the "yuppie" ethos later in the decade.

I found "I Love the 1980s" to be as poorly researched as "I Love the 1970s" and in this case the people working on the series did not actually appear to have any affection for the era.

Or a great deal of reliable knowledge about it.