Switching on -- A waking dream -- A straight pencil-mark up the sky -- The pale flicker of the Lime Grove light -- The invisibile focus of a million eyes -- The dance of irrelevant shadows -- A barrier against the silences -- The age of warts and carbuncles -- A glimmer on the dull grey tube -- Closedown
Summary
'But what does your furniture point at?' asks the character Joey in the sitcom Friends on hearing an acquaintance has no TV. It's a good question: since its beginnings during WW2, television has assumed a central role in our houses and our lives, just as satellite dishes and aerials have become features of urban skylines. Television (or 'the idiot's lantern', depending on your feelings about it) has created controversy, brought coronations and World Cups into living rooms, allowed us access to 24hr news and media and provided a thousand conversation starters. As shows come and go in popularity
