9:45am Tuesday 24th August 2010
By Andrew Hitchon
I WAS sitting at home the other night and, feeling too tired to read, started flicking through the TV channels in the hope of finding something even mildly diverting.
Lo and behold, I discovered what appeared to be some kind of rather lively and entertaining discussion programme, with a bunch of guys comparing today’s cinema offering unfavourably with that of yesteryear.
They all seemed to be making a lot of sense, and I began to wonder what this mini-goldmine was I had stumbled across.
One of the speakers was a bloke I recalled used to be a presenter on a programme I never watched, another a comedian I hadn’t seen for a while, and gradually the discussion seemed to veer into slightly less sensible territory – I mean, it’s not as if every 1970s potboiler was better than the best of today’s films, and suggesting the fleapits of past decades provided a better venue for entertainment than modern cinemas was verging on the ridiculous.
An awful suspicion began to grow on me, and when I checked the TV listings it was confirmed on the page – I had unwittingly tuned into Grumpy Old Men. So that was it then; I suspect many others had already slotted me into the curmudgeon category, and here was the proof.
However, was this necessarily such a terrible thing, I wondered? After all, the grouchy old men and their female equivalents are actually rather popular, and while there’s probably something in their contracts which says they have to go over the top once in a while, their opinions do occasionally make complete sense. Let’s take the “films were better in my day” rant I tuned in to. An awful lot of critics, even ones not born at the time, regard the era they were recalling so fondly, roughly the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s, as a “golden age” for a certain type of movie, ones which combined audience appeal with artistic achievement. So the grumps probably had a point.
Trouble was, they had to take things that bit too far, as they tend to do, both on the box and in everyday life. Still, might there be a place for grumpy old men and women, and not just on the TV?
Legend has it that once, no doubt in “the good old days”, the older members of our society were accorded a special status because of their acquired wisdom and experience. Their advice was sought, so it is said, in order that the younger folk might be guided away from the mistakes their elders had already either made or witnessed.
Surely it would still be helpful to have someone remind rising generations that some things – such as Hollywood movies – were once done better than they are now, so they could maybe learn from it? As the grumps also show us, it’s all a matter of balance; once they start trying to tell people absolutely everything was better way back then, you know it’s time for their medication.
I hold to the view that an awful lot of human life goes in cycles; that what appears to be terribly new has actually been tried before, albeit possibly with a slightly different name, and probably not that long ago. If I’m right, then you’d think David Cameron would be setting up a Ministry of Codgers to ensure the same mistakes weren’t repeated.
Think again. The last thing any bright young councillor/manager/prime minister wants to hear, after they’ve told their subjects their latest plans for future prosperity and happiness, is: “We tried that years back, it didn’t work then, and here’s why…”
It’s probably been ever thus, but certainly today’s society would prefer to recycle apparently new ideas, and keep making the same mistakes, than admit the best plan might actually be to strive to do things better rather than to find magical solutions.
So the only place the grumps will be listened to is on those popular TV programmes. I wonder if there’s a vacancy?
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