And Now, For Younger Viewers......

When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me, so goes the oft quoted passage from the First Book of Corinthians, which was not written by J K Rowling in case you don't know.

Mainstream news media, especially the absurdly bloated national broadcaster, have been going big on the latest actor to take over the role of Doctor Who, and the fact that this undoubtedly estimable thespian just so happens to be female. Many of us have been asked the question

"Would you prefer a male or female doctor"

at one time or another, and quite honestly I think the Beeb have missed a trick, and that an opportunity for a full-blown plebiscite has been lost. Imagine the build up, hustings, debates, polls about polls about exit polls and a blow by blow run down as the nation decides this matter of the gravest constitutional importance.

Perhaps it would result in another 52/48, with the wrong choice of Doctor Who ruining the future for our children and grandchildren, or maybe Jeremy Corbyn could be the successor to the time lord, which would for a whole variety of reasons probably bring great joy to a great many people.

I remember watching Doctor Who when I was about eight years old, when the ever-so-slightly camp John Pertwee inhabited the title role, and a year or so later the return of the daleks made the cover of the Radio Times, although my recollection is that it didn't trouble the autocue of Reginald Bosanquet and Sandy Gall so much as once. I'm sure John Craven's Newsround would have covered it and possibly Newsbeat on Radio 1, two strands that had been introduced to foster an interest in current affairs amongst younger people, which is a perfectly worthy undertaking, though personally I had long been a devotee of ITN news, primarily because the theme music was so good.

Back then the distinction between children's programmes and the rest of the broadcast output was perfectly clear, and your parents would watch you watching them, with occasional interjections along the lines of

"That's nice dear"

when one's excitement had risen to fever pitch as Joe 90 had single-handedly thwarted an international spy ring with nothing more than a pair of special glasses.

 Nowadays though it seems that certain children's programmes, of which Doctor Who is perhaps the standout example, are watched and taken quite seriously by a much broader age range of viewer, in much the same way as it is hardly unprecedented to see men in business suits reading Harry Potter novels in first class train carriages. I can remember probably exactly forty years ago when at school we each had to talk about our hobbies (I talked about drums and big band jazz it won't surprise you to learn) one classmate talked about the DWAS (Doctor Who Appreciation Society, Paul Tipton was his name as it happens) and was chastised in a torrent of adolescent vitriol by the entire class for his lack of maturity in choice of viewing, the collective opinion being that it was 'for children'.

Personally the fourteen year old me couldn't wait to grow up, put on a good suit and learn to drive a car. I admired grown up music and grown up women, but with just days remaining until the fortieth anniversary (August 1977) of my first 'grown up' gig with adult musicians and for proper money I can't help but contemplate how different what the world had to offer was, and if what we had to look forward to was in some ways better.