What We Were Watching

Season 1

2018 · 8 episodes · 2h 54m in all

Episodes

1. 

   1. Christmas 1988

   23 Dec 2018

   Looking back to 1988, Grace Dent explores both how TV changes over the festive season and how the nation's viewing habits have changed between then and 2018.

2. 

   2. Christmas 1979

   23 Dec 2019

   Grace Dent explores how well the televisual fare of Christmas 1979 compares to what we enjoy today, 40 years on.

3. 

   3. Summer TV Classics

   29 Jul 2020

   Join Grace Dent on a televisual trip of a lifetime as she explores the sights, sounds and schedules of the great British summer.

4. 

   4. Song and Dance Spectaculars

   20 Nov 2020

   Grace Dent invites you to lose yourself on a joyful journey back through the BBC archives, celebrating the broadcaster's song and dance extravaganzas of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

5. 

   5. Christmas 1995

   19 Dec 2020 · 59 min

   Grace Dent embarks on a televisual trip back in time to December 1995, serving up an irreverent look back at the festive viewing options that faced the nation in the past.

6. 

   6. Christmas 1991

   20 Dec 2021

   Writer and broadcaster Grace Dent takes a televisual trip back in time to Christmas 1991, as she immerses herself in the sights, sounds and TV schedules of the past.

7. 

   7. Christmas 1984

   28 Dec 2024 · 58 min

   TV critic, writer and 1980s addict Grace Dent unwraps the TV schedules for 1984 and finds it was a case of Orwell that ends well, on another festive fun-packed dash through the BBC’s archives, examining all the small screen content that viewers were glued to four decades ago.

8. 

   8. Christmas 1985

   21 Dec 2025 · 57 min

   Broadcaster, writer and critic Grace Dent travels back in time through the BBC’s television archives for a light-hearted look at What We Were Watching 40 years ago, over the Christmas period of 1985.