Time to say Goodnight

It's another evening when I am lying in my bed flicking though the channels on my Freeview box when I really aught to sleeping. It's amazing to think that it's just over a decade since television here in the UK used to shut-down overnight. Auntie Beeb would wish us a solemn goodnight before the national anthem drew the evening to a dignified conclusion. The idents would fade and we where left with the iconic test card showing the girl, the blackboard and that slightly creepy doll which has been giving me nightmares ever since “Life on Mars”

This is all a recent memory but it's a window into a different age – a different century. In those not-so-distant days if we wanted to know the latest news then we would have to wait until the morning papers where delivered. A world in which we had separate machines for making phone calls, taking photographs and listening to music. Back then if we felt the urge to “poke” our friends then we would need a stick and a swift excuse before they retaliated with a punch in the face.

The notion of television going to bed at night may seem quaint and antiquated in our age of 24 hour media, apps and high definition. Now for insomniacs everywhere you can bathe in the delights of the rolling news, where 15 minutes of television is regurgitated over and over like a bite-sized groundhog day. All the thrills of las vegas are recreated right there in your living room with interactive roulette and poker. And of course if you spin on far enough you get to the half naked ladies jiggling their bottoms whilst miming naughty things with the help of a cordless phone.

Progress is a gradual transition, there are times when it's barely noticeable at all - and others where you are left thinking “why did they even bother?”