Watching Neighbours Twice a Day

Comedian and co-host of Adam Hills: The Last Leg, Josh Widdicombe, has written this book about his experiences of watching television during his younger years. The full title of the book is Watching Neighbours Twice a Day ... How '90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me for Life. 

Josh Widdicombe lived in the small village of Haytor Vale in Devon and attended a very small primary school in another village three miles away in Ilsington. Not overly keen on participating in sport, Josh spent much of his early life watching televison. In this book he describes some of the television programs that were watched in his formative years when a limited number of televison stations existed. 

The period covered is primarily from 1990 to 2000. One of his favourite programs in his younger days was the Australian show, Neighbours, which was screened twice a day. By the end of the 1990s Josh had completed secondary school, where he worked hard at being unnoticed, before studying at Manchester University. 

The book looks at a range of television programs popular at the time and the effect television had on a young boy living in a village with his hippie parents. The book also looks at the early development and acceptance of other technology including computer games and the internet. Josh also provides a picture of what it was like growing up in a small English village in the 1990s. An interesting piece of humourous nostalgia.