IT was when I woke up on a grubby sofa in a freezing Brixton flat that I realised reunions sound more fun than they actually are.

It was the morning after a get-together with some people I was at journalism college with. A few of us had crashed at someone’s flat and, waking with a brutal hangover, I had two thoughts. One was: ‘I’m getting too old to sleep on random sofas’ and the other was: ‘Reunions are overrated’. We’d had fun at college but we weren’t students anymore, we’d lost common ground.

Maybe, I thought, it was best to remember people as they were, rather than trying to reunite a spark long since expired. While reunions can sound exciting, in reality they can feel contrived. Pop bands only reunite because, even if they can’t stand the sight of each other, it’s lucrative.

I once went to a school reunion and, while I enjoyed the nostalgia of wandering into familiar classrooms and seeing old faces, it was an unsettling reminder of time passing. One of my favourite teachers, quite a dude in the Eighties, looked old and grey, and struggled to remember our names.

Television reunions can be disappointing too. One of the creators of Friends recently put to bed any notion that the much-loved US sitcom could return. “You don’t want a bunch of people in their 50s in the coffee house!” said David Crane, co-creator of the show.

Since Friends ended in 2004, there has been speculation it may one day return. But, as Crane points out, it was about “a finite period of time in life in your 20s” and should be preserved as such. Reviving it would be like going to your school reunion and being disappointed, he said. “You’re like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’”

I loved Friends (who didn’t?) and whenever I catch an episode on the channel that has them on a permanent loop it still makes me smile. Chandler and the gang are immortalised chewing the fat in Central Perk. Do we really want to see them in the throes of mid-life crises?

Another Nineties TV hit was This Life, a compelling BBC drama about a group of young lawyers. A decade after it ended there was a one-off reunion show, which was dull and stilted. It just didn’t work.

I guess the recent Will and Grace comeback is an exception, since the writing and acting is still razor sharp - but, funny as they are, none of the characters have really moved on since we last saw them.

One reunion I do remember fondly was with five reporters I worked with at the start of my career. We met up in a curry restaurant 25 years later, joined by the photographer from our old paper, John Chambers.

Back in the early 1990s I arrived in the Spen Valley town of Cleckheaton, a place I’d never heard of, to begin my job on a weekly newspaper. I had no idea what I was doing. So thank goodness for kindly John, who showed me the ropes. In those early days, out and about on our ‘patch’, he gently guided me around the great, the good and the newsworthy, helping me develop reporting skills. I still remember heading out in the newspaper van with him at the wheel, chatting away and whistling. A few days ago I heard the sad news that John has passed away. A well respected press photographer, he will be fondly remembered by generations of cub reporters he took under his wing - including this one.