Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

Mcr Warrior · 28 Jun 2026

Mike99 said:
Have Luncheon Vouchers been mentioned?

They certainly have, and possibly more than once. In a similar vein, how about the circular "We Accept LV " stickers seen on the windows of (food and grocery) shops where they could be used?

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GordonT · 28 Jun 2026

The various dramatisation series such as Dickens classics which the BBC used to show over several weeks within Sunday teatime slots.

chris53 · 28 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
The various dramatisation series such as Dickens classics which the BBC used to show over several weeks within Sunday teatime slots.

I miss them

Trackman · 30 Jun 2026

What about best rooms/parlours?
As a kid I wasn't allowed in the 'best room' except for Christmas, birthdays, important visitors and so on.

Harpo · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
The various dramatisation series such as Dickens classics which the BBC used to show over several weeks within Sunday teatime slots.

Sunday evening was always some sort of period costume drama. Todays ‘tradition’ seems to be that Saturday evening has to be filled with vacuous game shows and dross competitions.

GordonT · 30 Jun 2026

Trackman said:
What about best rooms/parlours?
As a kid I wasn't allowed in the 'best room' except for Christmas, birthdays, important visitors and so on.

Some houses had a piano in their best room which you don't see much of now. At one time most cities had at least one immense music shop with a section dedicated to pianos and (when they became popular) what were termed "electronic organs". Usually prospective purchasers or those assumed to be prospective purchasers were allowed to "test drive" some of the instruments, with varying degrees of musical proficiency.

35B · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
Some houses had a piano in their best room which you don't see much of now. At one time most cities had at least one immense music shop with a section dedicated to pianos and (when they became popular) what were termed "electronic organs". Usually prospective purchasers or those assumed to be prospective purchasers were allowed to "test drive" some of the instruments, with varying degrees of musical proficiency.

The test driving at least remains - when buying musical instruments for the kids, their being able to test the instruments in the right price range was essential. Not so many shops now - the trumpet was bought in Chesham, and the piano in Sleaford

Harpo · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
Usually prospective purchasers or those assumed to be prospective purchasers were allowed to "test drive" some of the instruments, with varying degrees of musical proficiency.

Ah! Guitar shops. Sometimes with signs warning which dreaded rock & roll cliches mustn’t be heard when trying guitars.

Photo - Sign warns ‘customers’ of banned songs.

The exile · 30 Jun 2026

Silent said:
I meant mobile library buses that visited school’s, so for schools as they were also branded to probably look more attractive to primary school kids.

Oh right - never came across one of them.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jun 2026 ==

GordonT said:
I think you are spot on re. it being Heath. Another feature which might at one time have been more of an anachronism is that of PMs not bothering with the inconvenience of being elected by the electorate (Major, Brown, Sunak and potentially Starmer's successor).

We do not elect a Prime Minister, we elect a representative / Member of Parliament.

GordonT · 30 Jun 2026

The exile said:
We do not elect a Prime Minister, we elect a representative / Member of Parliament.

True, that is technically correct although a significant number of voters will weigh up the perceived calibre of the party leaders at the time of election when determining which party to vote for. I should perhaps have referred to them as "takeover" prime ministers.

The exile · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
True, that is technically correct although a significant number of voters will weigh up the perceived calibre of the party leaders at the time of election when determining which party to vote for. I should perhaps have referred to them as "takeover" prime ministers.

Like using anything for a purpose other than what it was intended for, it’ll work fine for a lot of things but you can’t really complain when it doesn’t perform fully!

dgl · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
Some houses had a piano in their best room which you don't see much of now. At one time most cities had at least one immense music shop with a section dedicated to pianos and (when they became popular) what were termed "electronic organs". Usually prospective purchasers or those assumed to be prospective purchasers were allowed to "test drive" some of the instruments, with varying degrees of musical proficiency.

My Auntie had two pianos when they had the rectory, an upright in the fancy dining room and a baby grand in the drawing room. When my Uncle retired and they moved the upright ended up in my Grans dining room and the baby grand went with them and lived in the summerhouse (which was a fancy brick built affair).

As for trying out instruments that is still possible, though there are less shops around. On that theme a good holiday for any musician would be a trip to Thomann out in Bavaria, Germany. World's largest musical instrument shop/retailer and just spent €50,000,000 on creating a new/expanded acoustic section for their guitar department. Selling everything from a cheap own brand child's guitar to a €149,999 high end acoustic, if it's an instrument they probably sell it! (And loads of variations of any instrument they sell, anyone for a hurdy gurdy?)
Owned soley by the son of the founder whos worked there since childhood, so a family business but not like your local family run music shop!, for starters they don't have a warehouse that amazon would envy.
Interestingly their head office/shop/warehouse/auditorium is not on an industrial estate in a German city but in a small village called Treppendorf where the shop used to be part of the family farm and now the residents of the village get to see modern buildings rather than sweeping countryside views!

The exile · 30 Jun 2026

dgl said:
Owned soley by the son of the founder whos worked there since childhood, so a family business but not like your local family run music shop!, for starters they don't have a warehouse that amazon would envy.
Interestingly their head office/shop/warehouse/auditorium is not on an industrial estate in a German city but in a small village called Treppendorf where the shop used to be part of the family farm and now the residents of the village get to see modern buildings rather than sweeping countryside views!

Although less so than in the past, this is still relatively common in Gernany (family owned companies remaining where their roots are)

35B · 30 Jun 2026

GordonT said:
True, that is technically correct although a significant number of voters will weigh up the perceived calibre of the party leaders at the time of election when determining which party to vote for. I should perhaps have referred to them as "takeover" prime ministers.

And their legitimacy is exactly the same as those who led their parties at the time of the election that brought the party to power. Between WWII and the Brexit referendum, more PMs took office as replacements for their predecessor rather than by taking over at an election:
1945 - Attlee (GE)
1951 - Churchill (GE)
1955 - Eden (transfer)
1957 - MacMillan (transfer)
1963 - Douglas-Home (transfer)
1964 - Wilson (GE)
1970 - Heath (GE)
1974 - Wilson (GE)
1976 - Callaghan (transfer)
1979 - Thatcher (GE)
1990 - Major (transfer)
1997 - Blair (GE)
2007 - Brown (transfer)
2010 - Cameron (GE)

The expectation set by Wilson and Heath was, if anything, an exception.

The churn since 2016 is different, but is about the political turbulence following 2016 rather than anything more specific

GordonT · 30 Jun 2026

The days when few if any food product labels carried either the words "caramalised onion" or "salted caramel".

oldman · 30 Jun 2026

35B said:
1955 - Eden (transfer)

Eden had an election as soon as he became PM. None of the other post-war transferees did.

najaB · 30 Jun 2026

Harpo said:
Sunday evening was always some sort of period costume drama. Todays ‘tradition’ seems to be that Saturday evening has to be filled with vacuous game shows and dross competitions.

This is largely because it's one of the worst nights for TV ratings as it's the most likely night of the week for people to be out of the house. Game shows are much cheaper to produce than scripted content.

styles · 30 Jun 2026

najaB said:
Game shows are much cheaper to produce than scripted content.

I thought this for a long time, partly because paying out ~£10k to someone on Price is Right or BFH on Bullseye was dirt cheap compared to what you pay professional actors/actresses.

But then Who Wants To Be A Millionaire came about and the average payouts in the shows totalled about £60k. Ok this is still not an insane sum for the likes of ITV maybe, but that surely would pay for many professionals to sit on panels etc (excluding the people whose work is required for both, e.g. camera crew, producer, director, etc). After WWTBAM came out, there seemed to be a sleuth of high-payout game shows, like Deal Or No Deal (up to £250k), Million Pound Drop (up to £1m), Red Or Black? (highest payout was £1.5m), Pokerface (£1m), and we now have Limitless Win (max £∞! [bang to be interpreted as exclamation, not factorial]). The advertising revenue of the likes of ITV and Channel 4 must be absolutely wild to produce some of these shows now, and I'd have thought paying a few actors for an hour would be cheaper than £60k average payout for WWTBAM.

bspahh · 30 Jun 2026

styles said:
The advertising revenue of the likes of ITV and Channel 4 must be absolutely wild to produce some of these shows now, and I'd have thought paying a few actors for an hour would be cheaper than £60k average payout for WWTBAM.

https://www.filminginengland.co.uk/...age-Local-Production-Spend-Rate-Card_V4-1.pdf is a PDF file with some estimated rates for the cost of filming per day, and the overall budget for feature films, high end TV dramas, soaps etc.
The "low" end for a High End TV drama is £1.25m + per episode but, you have a chance of selling it internationally, unless its very UK focused (like Mr Bates vs The Post Office), or something like a comedy, which might not work in another country.

With game shows, you can record 5 shows a day and keep broadcasting them forever. The cost of the prizes is a small part of the overall budget.

styles · 30 Jun 2026

bspahh said:
https://www.filminginengland.co.uk/...age-Local-Production-Spend-Rate-Card_V4-1.pdf is a PDF file with some estimated rates for the cost of filming per day, and the overall budget for feature films, high end TV dramas, soaps etc.
The "low" end for a High End TV drama is £1.25m + per episode but, you have a chance of selling it internationally, unless its very UK focused (like Mr Bates vs The Post Office), or something like a comedy, which might not work in another country.

With game shows, you can record 5 shows a day and keep broadcasting them forever. The cost of the prizes is a small part of the overall budget.

A lot of those costs will still be incurred by filming a game show though. You still need a studio, a celebrity presenter, a producer, a director, camera crew, make up, sound engineers, etc.

dgl · 30 Jun 2026

And with game shows you had Brucie's old joke of "What a wonderful audience, so much better than last weeks!" when it was the same audience.

styles · 30 Jun 2026

dgl said:
And with game shows you had Brucie's old joke of "What a wonderful audience, so much better than last weeks!" when it was the same audience.

I was on a UK game show.

After my episode was filmed, I sat in the audience, fun times.

I then answered a question which was "thrown out to the audience" because the contestants didn't get it.

Filming stopped, a floor manager came over and said no we can't have that - he was on the previous episode then he's in the audience in the same shirt and answers the winning question, we can't have that. I hadn't actually given it any thought, but it's a fair point! Anyway, when we restarted filming we had to "throw it out the audience" again, and at this point literally everybody in the audience puts their hand but because I've already said the answer, but I can't put my hand up, so I look like a proper dunce.

Mr. SW · 30 Jun 2026

My father's old PA had an actress friend whose job was to sit in the audience in TV variety and magic shows and put her hand up if no one responded to "Can I have someone from the audience please?"

Bald Rick · 30 Jun 2026

Harpo said:
Todays ‘tradition’ seems to be that Saturday evening has to be filled with vacuous game shows and dross competitions.

It’s been like that for at least half a century!

simonw · 30 Jun 2026

Bald Rick said:
It’s been like that for at least half a century!

I'm glad you said that, it's my recollection too. The tv companies know their audiences and who will be home in a Saturday night, who will be getting ready to go out and having a few drinks at home ( hence the scheduling of blind date) and who will already be out and about.

MP33 · 30 Jun 2026

At One Day Cricket Cup Finals and Internationals. It used to be a tradition, that the end was followed by a mass pitch invasion. The Players and Umpires losing items of property in the process.

Also in Test matches, when a leading player from the West Indies or India reached a century. Play was held up, whilst fans came onto the pitch, to offer their congratulations.

GordonT · 30 Jun 2026

MP33 said:
At One Day Cricket Cup Finals and Internationals. It used to be a tradition, that the end was followed by a mass pitch invasion. The Players and Umpires losing items of property in the process.

Also in Test matches, when a leading player from the West Indies or India reached a century. Play was held up, whilst fans came onto the pitch, to offer their congratulations.

At least one old film had a scene in which a globetrotting English gent demonstrated great ingenuity in his urgent quest to determine the latest Test match score.

Trackman · 30 Jun 2026

styles said:
I was on a UK game show.

After my episode was filmed, I sat in the audience, fun times.

I then answered a question which was "thrown out to the audience" because the contestants didn't get it.

Filming stopped, a floor manager came over and said no we can't have that - he was on the previous episode then he's in the audience in the same shirt and answers the winning question, we can't have that. I hadn't actually given it any thought, but it's a fair point! Anyway, when we restarted filming we had to "throw it out the audience" again, and at this point literally everybody in the audience puts their hand but because I've already said the answer, but I can't put my hand up, so I look like a proper dunce.

Mr. SW said:
My father's old PA had an actress friend whose job was to sit in the audience in TV variety and magic shows and put her hand up if no one responded to "Can I have someone from the audience please?"

My Auntie and my cousin had audience tickets for 'The price is right' and were excited as they may be picked.
I told them it was fixed and they had no chance.
They called at my house at 10pm complete with name badges and said 'You were right!' as they told them before the taping who had been selected as they were setting up camera angles.

Bald Rick said:
It’s been like that for at least half a century!

It's got worse if anything.

Mr. SW · 30 Jun 2026

Regarding Saturday TV Schedules in Ye Olden Tyme: Children's programmes in the morning followed by Grandstand or World of Sport.

johntea · 1 Jul 2026

I've been to a few audience recordings in my time...off the top of my head (mainly gameshows!)

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Both with Chris Tarrant and Jeremy Clarkson - they don't usually play the background music you hear on the TV in the studio but do for Millionaire just to make the contestants even more nervous than they already are!

Deal Or No Deal - Both with Noel Edmonds and Stephen Mulhern - the weird thing is you think 'what a load of rubbish!' with all the 'dream factory' nonsense they go on about watching at home but being in the studio as a 'pilgrim' you really do get into things and start to get 'feelings'! (also yes the banker is a real person on the other end, you will often notice watching on TV the audience jump when the phone rings as it is VERY loud!)

Million Pound Drop LIVE - Davina McCall - More security checks than Manchester Airport getting in the studio for that as the million quid was apparently real dosh and not just prop money

Countdown - Nick Hewer - Quick recording as they do film it pretty much as live since they have to record 5 shows in a single day! Audience got a pen and paper to join in, I was useless

(30 seconds is nothing especially with the clock ticking away in the background which again is VERY loud compared to the TV!)

The Cube - Phillip Schofield - They shoved me directly behind the friends and family so all I could see when I watched it back on TV was my clapping hands! Amazing how they edited that with all the fancy graphics and slow motion for TV, the contestants had to watch a generic example of the upcoming games on a tiny screen rather than 'The Body' and 'Voice of The Cube' Colin McFarlane and look up into thin air when Phil said 'you've won £x!' Also obviously they had to get a crew in to reset the game each time after a failure but you would be surprised how quick they were at doing so!

The Apprentice You're Fired - Tom Allen - Got to watch an episode of The Apprentice a few days early and hold up the famous 'Hired/Fired' card at the end!

Things in living memory which seem very anachronistic now

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