Well.. not totally forgotten

Look and Read. Jesus.
I remember watching this with glee, then remembering nothing the moment they handed out the heavily photocopied worksheet. How many pieces of the magic thing did that one guy say they needed to reach the place? …oh, fuck. I’d just zoned out and enjoyed it like a fever dream, and now a test? A test you told us was coming, so it shouldn’t be a surprise? That was my first real taste of being overwhelmed. I was seven. Maybe it was a good idea to get used to that feeling early.

This show makes me nostalgic not just for itself, but for the kids older than me who’d already watched it before I did. It was a reminder that like them, I’d move on, head to high school, and leave it behind. Everything was temporary, and I knew from them that the irreversible flow of time, and the ageless chain I was a helpless link in was forever being pulled at a alarming rate in to an endless void.

So here it is: a classic that lives on, not just as a programme, but as a strange, collective memory carried by the kids of the 80s and 90s.