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That's So Last Century, Channel 4 - TV review: You'd have to be under 16 not to recognise these gadgets

The show seemed to assume we were all the same age as the celebrities' children

Daisy Wyatt
Tuesday 08 December 2015 23:56 GMT
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James Corden in That's So Last Century
James Corden in That's So Last Century (Channel 4)

The Christmas schedule is upon us, and Channel 4 has got the proceedings well under way with That's So Last Century, a look at retro gadgets gone by brought to you by some of our most famous comedians – and their families.

Doc Brown, Vic Reeves, Will Mellor and – rather randomly – boxer David Haye gathered around the table with their brood to discuss a bygone era where we rewound cassette tapes by turning them over in our Walkmans and fast-forwarding them. Even James Corden took a break from hosting his late-night show in LA to talk about the merits of playing Snake on a Nokia 3310.

The show seemed to assume we were all the same age as the celebrities' children and had never known the days when you had to savour the number of holiday snaps you could take on your Kodak or use text speak to SV MNY ON CRDT.

Amusing as it was to see Vic Reeves's daughter call a cassette tape a record, and Dom Joly's son try and take a selfie with an archaic Nikon, most of us do remember when chemists dobbed customers in for their naughty snaps and people re-recorded TV shows over old episodes of Top of the Pops on VHS.

It may have seemed like an eternity since we started messaging on WhatsApp and sharing photos on Instagram, but the smartphone has only been around for eight years. You'd have to be under-16 not to recognise any of the gadgets on the show, in which case you probably should have been in bed.

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