First viewed : 19 June 1981
This is one where the circumstances of watching it are much more vivid in my mind than the content.
Friday 19th June 1981 was something of a red letter day. As it was the day of my last exam , the written part of the Drama O Level , it marked the end of my time in compulsory education. I always intended to go back and do A Levels at the school but the plain fact was that I had the option of never setting foot in the place again. A twelve year journey had come to an end and there were plenty of familiar faces that I would never see again.
And that's where the bitter sweet memory comes in. It was the last time I saw my friend Tim Navesey. Our friendship had developed through us both doing Drama, at which he was better than me. The exam was fine; it was my best subject and there were no nasty surprises. After it, we were walking to the bus stop together, a bit light headed with relief that it was all over and I mentioned I was going on a walking holiday the following Monday. Tim then said he'd like to get involved in walking with me. This was tremendous news. I was somewhat apprehensive ( rightly as it turned out ) about the fact that my companion on the holiday, Michael, would be starting work ( on a YTS scheme ) as soon as it was over and had been wondering whether I'd see him as regularly after that. I was also conscious that it wasn't healthy to have all your eggs in one basket as far as friendships went. Hitherto the association with Tim had only been school-based but he obviously wanted to develop it further. If Michael did drift away, I wouldn't be so exposed.
So I arrived home in a very happy mood and just wanted some comedown TV. The Best Sellers franchise was originally launched by the American company NBC in 1976 to link together a number of mini-series based on adaptations of popular novels. It didn't seem to work that well in. the US for it was dropped after one season. It did work for ITV though who continued to use it even when it was broadcasting series which hadn't been produced by NBC. There was little concern for literary quality - I think there were a couple of Jeffrey Archers in there - but they attracted some big stars. By the eighties the repeats were being used as daytime schedule fillers.
Top of the Hill was written by Irwin Shaw best known for Rich Man, Poor Man , an early adaptation in the series. It's a potboiler about love and professional rivalry amongst the competitors at the Winter Olympics. The series starred fading sixties starlet Elkie Sommer , Adrienne Barbeau and, with macabre irony, Sonny Bono as a ski instructor. It wasn't very engaging and after half an hour or so I got up and found something else to do.
After the holiday , I had to attend the Sixth Form Induction Week at school. Tim was nowhere to be seen . I tracked down his younger brother and received the gobsmacking news that he had gone off to train as a priest. He'd never given me the slightest inkling that he was inclined that way.* That was the low point of an awful week. The school could have cleared the necessary business of choosing options and signing up to classes in a couple of days but instead we were stuck there for five , watching boring careers films or talks, each one completely irrelevant to 95% of the audience. As well as that, I got the slight sense that every one else had grown up just a little bit more than me; what they would have found entertaining just a couple of months earlier was now regarded as tiresome or childish. It didn't bode well for the next couple of years.
And that's how this personal stuff marks a bit of a watershed in this blog. Because of the rapid deterioration in my social life, I would expect the coverage of the next two years ( which of course includes the launch of Channel 4 ) up to my going to university to be much more comprehensive as I was in the house much more often. Added to that my bed times were no longer monitored ; I could stay up as late as I wanted.
* About a year later Tim's brother asked for my address as he wanted to write to me. A couple of letters were exchanged. A year, or maybe two , after that he got in touch to say that he'd knocked the priesthood idea on the head and had just started driving. He was supposed to drive over to see me but I think he got lost or something and it never happened. To this day I've not seen him since that day in June.
It's an interesting time, when you're 16 and have those options. Like you, I was always going to stay on (the whole point of school, to me, was to survive to 18 so you made university and escaped), but still.. the idea of leaving to work was a strange one. I could have followed my old man to Sellafield - which would have provided a well-paid job for life, but instead, I stuck with my original plans and spent two years of Sixth From arsing around. I did improve my pool game at the pub, though.
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