TV dramas are my staple alternative to the deluge of reality shows, soaps and makeover programmes that passes for entertainment these days. Or at least they used to be.

TV drama seems overly wallowing in nostalgia. ‘Ashes To Ashes‘, Mad Men‘, ‘Minder and ‘The Prisoner‘ remakes, or that interminable Sunday evening shiny, happy people fare like ‘Heartbeat‘ and ‘Ballykiss Angel‘.

To my mind, this is simply the product of that generation growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s now assuming control of the commissioning departments. They cast back into their minds for “inspiration” and delve into their childhoods for programming ideas. It evidences a lack of vision, awareness and originality. And an assumption that their nostalgia is the same as mine or yours. It represents an infantilisation for all of us, once their babies get made and screened. Here’s why in my opinion.

I ask myself why they cast back into their childhoods for material? Why cannot they reflect on our modern times for inspiration? Because there is something comforting in their pasts, an escape from these troubling, complex times we live in now. There is an unstated wish fulfillment happening here, a yearning for a simpler, purer age. The people in power in TV, probably had fairly privileged upbringings. But now threatened by the instability of the world economy, together with the stress of an explosion in alternative media challenging TV’s hegemony, such folk reach back into more unruffled and cosier times in the amniotic embrace of their original childhoods. A return to the womb warmth and numbness. Please don’t offer me ‘Skins‘ as a counter-argument, that in fact executives ARE trying to engage with the here and now. Talk about infantilisation… Adults probably shouldn’t be allowed to produce programmes about teens…

In the late 1960’s and 70’s, TV was still a new enough medium to be in touch with the vision of its founding fathers. Of genuine public broadcasting, albeit of the patrician kind, but these patricians took their duty seriously. ‘Play For Today‘ ran for fourteen years and boasted or launched the careers of writers such as Mike Leigh, Alan Bleasdale, Dennis Potter, Willie Russell, Stephen Poliakoff et al. Writer-led drama, unlike the appalling scripts of ‘Ashes To Ashes’ or the Sunday evening bromides.

Now admittedly these were one -off dramas not series, though ‘Boys From The Blackstuff‘ emerged as a series out of the original screenplay. For some reason that format fell out of favour. Their treatment of contemporary issues, with an artistic, metaphorical flourish, has now been replaced by the plodding literalism of the Soaps when they turn their hand to address a ‘hard-hitting’ issue. I for one feel short changed by such a trend. But it seems pretty irreversible. Into the drama vacuum has emerged the glitzy, surface appearance of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and its ilk. High concept, low end execution.

You may argue that ‘Pennies From Heaven‘ drips in nostalgia, albeit for the 1930’s. Similarly ‘The Singing Detective’ invokes noir detectives and again Potter’s love for 1930’s music. But the latter has a contemporary setting as a man looks back on his life from his sickbed and both are far from cosy nostalgia as they seek to unravel the present dystopia stemming from childhood anxieties and trauma. Such works seethe in subtext and what is going on emotionally under the surface, in a way that soaps, and surface detail-obsessed nostalgic trips like ‘Ashes To Ashes‘ lamentably fail to do. This is the difference between light entertainment and serious drama. This is what happens when you have half an eye on international DVD box-set sales and where the key artistic decisions revolve around what songs to put on the soundtrack. If you want to rediscover the music of the age, go back and download the albums. Don’t weave a specious drama around it.

I liked the first series ‘Life On Mars‘ with John Simm. It had some decent writing that gave the actors something to work with to inject credibility into what was after all a fantasy plot. But as far as recalling what life was like in the 1970’s, revisiting MY childhood, I would rather watch reruns of ‘The Sweeney‘ on ITV4, with real locations, and a real period feel because it was actually shot in the 1970’s. I look at the cars and how primitive and boxy they seem. I marvel at how the Cops are forced to locate a telephone box to phone any live information in, pre-mobiles, computers and Satnavs. I see how much the architecture and geography of London, my London, has changed as I grope for dim recognition of the locations. It says more about police corruption than the meandering storyline throughout the recent ‘Ashes To Ashes‘ series ever could. I don’t want my recall structured and furnished for me by the creative eye of TV set designers casting their minds back 30 years. I already have an established bank of memories from the time itself. I can indulge my own nostalgia, not have others presume to do it for me. I don’t want to pay homage to how great a series ‘Minder’ was by remaking the bloody thing with ‘Eastenders‘ cast offs. I’ve got the original showing every week on digital TV.

Nostalgia, it just ain’t what it used to be.