Sunday evening TV memories

I'm sitting here this Sunday evening thinking how I no longer seem to experience the "Sunday evening dread" now that I'm working from home. That must be a first since about 1990. It got me thinking about Sunday evening TV schedules and which programmes still fill me with that feeling of dread.

Growing up in the 90s as I did, the offending programmes are Songs of Praise, Antiques Roadshow and various sitcoms and dramas like Last of the Summer Wine, Lovejoy, Ballykissangel, The House of Elliot etc. Even the mention of those TV shows bring me out in a cold sweat about Monday morning! Sundays would nearly always be the same routine - my grandpa would visit, we'd have a Sunday roast, play a board game, watch the above TV shows and somewhere in the middle it would be bath time and then off to bed with the sound of the Nine O'Clock News theme booming from downstairs.

It's amazing how TV can bring back some pretty powerful memories. What are yours?

Sundays nights were all about Bullseye in my mind. Sometimes Highway as well, and Heartbeat.

You always knew the weekend was well and truly over when The South Bank Show started

For future generations it will be Countryfile.

Early evening and early 90s I remember Bullseye and strangely Our House in the Central region which was very watchable.

As the decade moved on though it was all about Heartbeat and Londons Burning, which with Corrie was a pretty blockbuster block of returning serials. Don't really remember much of what ITV shows before Corrie added the Sunday episode and Heartbeat dominated in the mid-90s other than Surprise Surprise, which I think tended to air on Sundays.

BBC1 had Lovejoy and the incredibly boring House of Elliot which seemed to run for years. Was often a comedy in there too, and until Corrie came along the night wasn't scheduled around the hour and half hour on either channel.

I echo all the sentiments, and memories; Heartbeat, especially was the one that made me fear incase I hadn’t completed some homework for the next morning, that and London’s Burning along with hazy memories of Clive James, Tarrant on TV and Spitting Image appearing on TV when I should have been asleep.

The Andrew Marr theme tune has that sort of effect on me now, as early on as it is on a Sunday.

Last of the Summer Wine, Heartbeat, Lovejoy, Surprise Surprise, Masterchef, Songs of Praise, some overly long ITV wildlife programme (Survival?), tedious BBC1 comedy/dramas like Pie in the Sky and As Time Goes By. All just seemed to never end and signal the depressing end of the weekend.

Sunday mornings equally horrific. Breakfast with Frost, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie...

Where the heart is, Heartbeat, Cold Feet, A touch of Frost. Sure I remember Barbara was shown Sunday teatimes too.

For me it was Diff'rent Strokes at 7.15. Hart to Hart to follow. Then That's Life over in Beeb after the news.

Howard’s Way for me! Once that was over it was time for bed and Primary school the next morning.

All Creatures Great and Small - (just spotted it on BBC Four).
Spitting Image in later years.
In the early 1970s Black Beauty.