In the early 2000s, hungover Saturday and Sunday mornings were bliss. Hungover students all over the country could wake up to Alexa Chung or Simon Amstell, who were probably hungover too, and spend hours watching Hollyoaks, The Simpsons or Friends.
But at some point in the last five years, television completely gave up on the thousands of young people who spend every Saturday and Sunday morning lying on the sofa, downing coffee and cursing the day they were born. Every show which was designed to help us through the morning after a night out has been scrapped in favour of shows about old people cooking, old people moving house or old people riding horses. Why?! Why has television foresaken us?!
THEN
From 2001-2007, Channel 4 brought us Popworld every Sunday morning, where we could watch Simon Amstell reduce Britney Spears to tears.
NOW
Now, we have Saturday Kitchen on BBC1, where we can watch middle aged men taunt us with recipes we will never be able to afford to make ourselves.
THEN
Remember T4? Remember when you had Shipwrecked, Friends, Desperate Housewives and Futurama to help you get through your hangover?
NOW
Horse racing: because every hungover person needs a reminder that, while they’re dying in bed, there are people awake and doing EXERCISE.
THEN
CD:UK encompassed everything that was great about Noughties weekend TV. Cat Deely, Ant, Dec, and music videos which required very little concentration. It was so perfect.
NOW
Escape to the Country encompasses everything that is terrible about today’s weekend TV. I’d rather escape to 2006, before CD:UK was taken from us.