The 1980s were the decade in which I entered and (in a numerical sense at least) exited adolescence. I remember it as a time, to borrow a phrase from huge-in-the-80s comedian Rowan Atkinson, both "finger-lickin' good and arse-wiping bad" - and that was just the hormonal roller coaster, never mind the trends and events of the period.
As a result, it was with more than a little trepidation that I watched the first two episodes of The 80s, the National Geographic Channel "10-part global television event" that screens nightly from this evening in two-episode blocks. The mere prospect of taking this trip down memory lane had prompted ghastly visions of the grey plastic-soled shoes and the skinny, bright-blue, faux-leather tie I wore back then, so goodness knows what long-buried recollections of other sartorial atrocities and unfortunate incidents might resurface after watching the thing.
Episode one is called Lift Off and covers the 80s advent, outlines the decade's general shape and gives a sense of what the series' central thesis is.
The first thing that struck me was the terrible muddiness of the video footage from the time, particularly in contrast to the crystal clarity of recent interviews with such famous 80s figures as Jane Fonda, Steve Wozniak and Larry Hagman.
