The Way We Watched

By the beginning of the 1960s, television was fast becoming central to everyday family life: living rooms were redesigned around ‘the box’ and domestic routines were re-organised around the TV schedules. Light entertainment dominated the ratings, with shows enjoying simultaneous live audiences of a size unimaginable today. We are often reminded that ‘everyone’ watched Morecambe and Wise at Christmas, but just as many will have seen Danny La Rue on The Royal Variety Performance, tuned in for Pan’s People’s last dance, or have known exactly what was coming next when they heard ‘Tonight, from Norwich…’

This exhibition invites you to consider the heyday of collective viewing through the memories of the ordinary viewers who watched it. It develops out of a research project undertaken by the University of Bristol which gathered reminiscences from local people to explore the place of shared viewing in family life during the period 1960 to 1985. Come and listen to their stories, look at the forgotten images, browse the memorabilia, and add your own memories to the collection.