Watching Neighbours Twice a Day… by Josh Widdicombe
$7.99
Watching Neighbours Twice a Day…
- How ’90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me for Life
- By: Josh Widdicombe
- Narrated by: Josh Widdicombe, James Acaster
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs
Publisher’s Summary
Featuring exclusive interviews with ’90s icons Pat Sharp, Diane Youdale (a.k.a. ‘Jet’ from Gladiators), Will Macdonald from TFI Friday and Blur’s Dave Rowntree. Plus a bonus track with James Acaster.
‘This is a book about growing up in the ’90s told through the thing that mattered most to me: the television programmes I watched. For my generation, television was the one thing that united everyone. There were kids at my school who liked bands, kids who liked football and one weird kid who liked the French sport of petanque, however, we all loved Gladiators, Neighbours and Pebble Mill with Alan Titchmarsh (possibly not the third of these).’
In his first memoir, Josh Widdicombe tells the story of a strange rural childhood, the kind of childhood he only realised was weird when he left home and started telling people about it. From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn’t just not bother to lock the front door, they didn’t even have a key.
Using a different television show of the time as its starting point for each chapter, Watching Neighbours Twice a Day… is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of ’90s television and culture. It will discuss everything from the BBC convincing him that Michael Parkinson had been possessed by a ghost, to Josh’s belief that Mr. Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to what it’s like being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol.
It tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one else could watch it with them.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Josh Widdicombe (P)2021 Bonnier Books UK
Rob in Nelson NZ
THOROUGHLY ENJOYED IT EVEN THOUGH I’M FAR TOO OLD
I really enjoy Josh’s comedy. I own a couple of DVDs of his standup shows (this betrays my age already). He’s a regular member of many of the panel shows I enjoy (WILTY, QI, etc). So when I saw he’d done an audiobook, it was straight into my library. After listening to the first 15 minutes or so, I was worried, but soon after, much less so. Being upfront, I live in NZ, and became a father in the ’90s. So watching TV was low on my list of things that needed doing, and several of the shows referenced didn’t air in NZ, Some that did (Gladiator, Neighbours, Big Brother) were plainly targeting younger people than I was. But it really didn’t matter. Josh’s humour shines through, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. A number of bonus extras with interviews of key stars from the era added a lot, as did the interview with James Acaster at the end. If you enjoy Josh’s humour, you’ll enjoy this book even if you didn’t watch Neighbours in the ’90s.
Noinam
If you lived through and enjoyed the 90s – read this
Live through the UK in the 90s, through TV! This really made me laugh out loud.