Hi Everyone

 

The Glam Rock TV documentary has been and gone with no mention of ABBA and now Channel Five in the UK are jumping on the 70's theme with a 5 part TV series and I'm sure ABBA will make an appearance somewhere along the way (fingers crossed). In the listings:

 

Five - Friday's at 9.00pm. 'The 1970's: That was the decade that was'. 

 

'A series looking back at the political, social and cultural changes that took place during the 1970's beginning with the impact on the traditional family unit of the new abortion and divorce laws and the arrival of women' liberation.'

 

In the Sun's TV magazine there is also a written feature on the show:

 

(Lucy Etherington)

 

Most people associate the Seventies with flares, platform shoes and denim aftershave. It was the dull decade after the revolutionary sixties.

 

But, as the five-part series 'The 1970's: That was the decade that was' reveals, the 1960's only happened to a handful of middle-class hippies. For most people it was the Seventies that really swung.

 

The first episode explores the decades sexual revolution, from the bra burning feminists to the Women's Liberation Front to gay rights activists.

 

This was the era of the pill, raunchy sex manual The Joy Of Sex and glam rockers such as David Bowie. Whether seriously hip and groovy or seriously uncool, the Seventies forged the world in which we live in today.

 

Emmerdale actress Susan Penhaligon remembers how Britain's stiff-upper-lipped TV viewers couldn't get enough of her shocking drama 'A Bouquet Of Barbed Wire' in 1976. "It took on subjects that were not spoken about," says Susan, 56, who played daddy's girl Prue. "It was about breaking barriers."

 

Even the idea of women living without men caused a stir - as in Carla Lane's flat-share sitcom 'The Liver Birds'. "In those days, you couldn't get a bank loan or a morgage if you weren't married" recalls Susan.

 

Meanwhile, the macho male of old was mutating into the modern metrosexual man we recognise today. David Bowie shook things up with his gender-bending Ziggy Stardust character. "If you dressed like Bowie, you were going to get beaten up" recalls broadcaster Robert Elms, 46. "But if you didn't, you were a dullard. It was that divisive"

 

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So will this TV series be tongue firmly in cheek or will it be taking an objective look at the 70's? Wonder what music will be used and who in the music world will be featured? So do I tape 'Hustle' or 'The 1970's' show. That's my dilemma!

 

All the best

Kathryn