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1
Top Hat (1935)
7.7/10on IMDb
Released
The Cheek to Cheek number, Top Hat (1935)
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers glide through Irving Berlin's song in one unhurried routine, with Rogers in the ostrich-feather gown that famously shed feathers during the dance; watch for them drifting off it. The film predates most grandparents, but the song is one many will hum along to, and it suits anyone who loved a dance hall or a ballroom program. Ask who taught them to dance, and where they went to do it.
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Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8.3/10on IMDb
Released
The title number, Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Gene Kelly splashing through puddles with an umbrella is about as cheerful as a few minutes of film gets, and it needs no knowledge of the story. It works especially well with someone for whom a whole film is hard going, because the pleasure is all in the movement and the tune. Ask whether they saw it at the movies, who they went with and what a ticket cost.
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Coronation of Elizabeth II
BBC television coverage of the coronation, June 2, 1953
For many families this was the day they first watched television, often squeezed into someone else's living room: more than half the viewers watched in the homes of friends, and around 20 million people in Britain saw it. Richard Dimbleby's commentary from high inside Westminster Abbey keeps everything stately and calm. A few excerpts are plenty; asking where they watched it, and who owned the set, usually does the rest.
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Elvis Presley
Born
First appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, September 9, 1956
About 60 million viewers tuned in, with the actor Charles Laughton introducing him because Sullivan was recovering from a car crash. Elvis sang Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog, and the cameras showed him head to toe; the famous waist-up shots came at a later appearance. It is a good way into talk of first records, coffee bars and what their own parents made of all that hip-shaking.
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Panorama (1953)
7.0/10on IMDb
First aired
The spaghetti harvest report, April 1, 1957
Three minutes of a family in Switzerland picking spaghetti from trees, narrated with complete seriousness by Richard Dimbleby. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC afterward, some wanting to know how to grow their own. It earns a laugh every time, and it opens a conversation about how unfamiliar pasta was in 1950s Britain and what went on the table instead.
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The Beatles
Born
The Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964
Their first appearance on the show was seen by about 73 million people, and the screaming studio audience is half the fun. They played All My Loving, Till There Was You and She Loves You. This is the clip most likely to bring out where someone first heard the Beatles, which of the four they liked best and whether their parents approved. Relatives who grew up in Britain will have their own Beatlemania stories to set beside the American frenzy.
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1966 FIFA World Cup final
BBC coverage of the World Cup final, July 30, 1966
Geoff Hurst's hat-trick against West Germany and Kenneth Wolstenholme's "they think it's all over... it is now" make up one of the most quoted moments in British sport, and the match drew a British audience of more than 32 million. The highlights are short enough for a visit. Even relatives with no interest in soccer often remember where they were that afternoon, and who they watched it with.
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Sandie Shaw
Born
Puppet on a String at the Eurovision Song Contest, Vienna, April 8, 1967
Singing barefoot, Sandie Shaw won the contest for the United Kingdom for the first time, with more than double the points of the runner-up. The song is catchy enough for a sing-along, and the scoreboard at the end adds a little suspense. Ask what they made of her bare feet, and whether the family gathered around for Eurovision every year.
More about Sandie Shaw9
Blue Peter (1958)
6.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Lulu the elephant in the Blue Peter studio, 1969
A young elephant relieves herself on the polished floor, treads on John Noakes's foot and drags her keeper through the mess while Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves try their best to carry on. Few clips get a room laughing faster, and the fun is good-natured rather than loud. Ask whether they watched Blue Peter themselves, or sat through it with their own children.
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Apollo 11
Television coverage of the first Moon landing, July 1969
Around 16 million people in Britain watched the landing, and the BBC and ITV stayed on air through the night to cover it, the country's first all-night television. The grainy black-and-white pictures of the first steps on the lunar surface are slow and quiet, which suits a calm afternoon. Ask whether they stayed up for it or were woken to see it, and who was in the room.
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Christian the lion
The reunion with Christian the lion, filmed in Kenya
Two young Australians who bought a lion cub at Harrods in 1969 visit him in the wild after leaving him with George Adamson, and the full-grown lion bounds over to hug them. The clip found millions of new viewers online decades later, but its story belongs to swinging London, where Christian lived in the basement of the furniture store the pair worked in. A guaranteed smile, and an easy route into talk of pets and London in the sixties.
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The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)
8.1/10on IMDb
First aired
André Previn and the Grieg Piano Concerto, the 1971 Christmas show
Eric Morecambe mangles the concerto while the real conductor André Previn keeps a perfectly straight face, until Eric insists he is playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. The pair's Christmas shows were national events, so this is a strong prompt for memories of Christmas Day itself. The sketch is gentle, wordy and easy to follow.
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The Bike Ride (Hovis advert)
A delivery boy pushes his bike up a steep cobbled hill to a brass-band version of Dvořák's New World Symphony, in a 1973 bread commercial directed by Ridley Scott years before he made Alien. In 2006 a poll of Britons voted it their favorite commercial of all time. Despite its northern feel it was filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, a detail that tends to surprise people. Ask about the bread rounds, milkmen and corner stores of their own childhood.
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Dad's Army (1968)
8.1/10on IMDb
First aired
The "Don't tell him, Pike!" scene, from the episode The Deadly Attachment
A captured U-boat captain demands the name of the cheeky young private, and Captain Mainwaring blurts it out. A 2002 poll named it the funniest line on British television, and the joke lands in seconds with no need to know the series. For relatives who grew up on their parents' wartime stories, the Home Guard setting can open up those family memories too.
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The Two Ronnies (1971)
7.8/10on IMDb
First aired
The Four Candles sketch, 1976
Ronnie Corbett's shopkeeper keeps fetching the wrong thing, four candles instead of fork handles, for a customer played by Ronnie Barker, who wrote it under the name Gerald Wiley. In a 1999 special, viewers chose it as their favorite Two Ronnies sketch. Anyone who remembers an old-fashioned hardware store, with its little drawers and long counter, will recognize the setting and probably the frustration.
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Life on Earth (1979)
9.1/10on IMDb
First aired
David Attenborough with the mountain gorillas, Life on Earth (1979)
Attenborough sits among a family of gorillas in Rwanda as they clamber over and around him, speaking in little more than a whisper. Nothing is loud or hurried, which makes it ideal for someone who finds busy television tiring. It also leads somewhere hopeful: there were only a few hundred mountain gorillas left in 1979, and there are more than 1,000 now.
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Only Fools and Horses (1981)
9.0/10on IMDb
First aired
The chandelier scene from A Touch of Glass, 1982
Del Boy and Rodney stand under a priceless chandelier holding a sheet while Grandad unscrews the wrong one. The prop cost £6,000, and the director warned Nicholas Lyndhurst he would be fired if he laughed and spoiled the shot. In a Radio Times poll for the show's 40th anniversary, only Del falling through the bar beat it. Anyone who watched the series knows what is coming, which is half the pleasure, and it often brings back the years when today's grandparents were bringing up young families.
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Torvill and Dean
Boléro at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics, February 14, 1984
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skate their free dance to Ravel's slowly building music, in the purple costumes now kept at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and receive twelve perfect sixes on the way to gold. More than 20 million people in Britain watched on Valentine's night. It is four and a half mesmerizing minutes that need no commentary, and the judges' scores flashing up give everyone something to cheer at the end.
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