It’s Friday night and you’ve finished school for another week.
You’ve got a bottle of Oasis summer fruits and some sour cream and chive Pringles waiting for you.
The anxiety of choice thanks to streaming services does not yet apply.
You’ve got two options for your Friday night viewing schedule - BBC2 or Channel 4.
You plump for Channel 4 and set up VideoPlus+ to tape Red Dwarf on the other side.
There’s a golden window of telly during which you can can enjoy Friends, Spaced, Frasier and TFI Friday.
In the morning you’ll watch The New Adventures of Superman.
Halcyon days.
Yes I know I'm banging on about the past, but the Friends reunion has made us nostalgic here at the M.E.N.
So we took to Facebook and asked - if you could bring back one TV show from the past, what would it be?
“I'd love to see an update of Our Friends In The North 25 years on,” Ed Taylor said.
“And Frasier...it looks like I may get my wish with that one.”
Janice Brown recalls a classic gameshow from the late 1980s.
“I don't know if anyone remembers, but there was a game show called Interceptor that was on in 1989/90. It ran for one series, was super popular - then it was axed! I'd love to see that back on TV,” she wrote.
Carole Ross commented: “Saturday night at The London Palladium. Loved it, very sad I know.”
While RedRock Ponies, perhaps unsurprisingly, wrote: “Champion the wonder horse !! At a push I could probably tell you the whole Saturday morning schedule!!”
Sarah Fallows, Caroline Horsburgh and Angela Thelwell are among a number of Brookside fans calling for a return for the Liverpool-set soap.
Margaret Starkey was a lone voice calling for the return of the BBC One soap Eldorado - which focused on British expats living in the fictional town of Los Barcos, in Spain and ran for just one year.
While Doona Gawthorne wrote simply “Sunset Beach” - a firm request for the return of the cancelled U.S. soap.
Susan Briggs declared Dallas “the best soap ever” and also called for the return of Hill Street Blues. And she wasn’t alone in her love for those two classic American shows.
Joy Miller says she loved Footballers Wives and the ITV show - which focused on the drama surrounding the fictional Premier League football club Earls Park F.C. - has left an indelible mark.
“Footballers Wives, I know it's not that far back but it was so OTT is was bordering on comedy, completely escapist lol. Can't look at Nick on Corry without thinking of him on this,” she wrote.
Bonnie McCants reminisced about her favourite programmes as a child.
She commented: “When I was little, Sunday evenings were my favourite. I would love to recreate just one of those nights. It was a real family event, we gathered together in front of the tv to eat our dinner, in our pyjamas, for this once a week tv watching treat.
“At 6-7pm, there was The Wonderful World of Disney, then from 7-8pm, we watched The Ed Sullivan Show and finally we kids were allowed to stay up late to watch Bonanza from 8-9pm!
“As soon as Bonanza was over, we ran down the hall to brush our teeth and go to bed! We never missed. We anticipated it from week to week”.
While Stacey Ball added: “Too many to mention.... Bread, Watching, Allo Allo, The Upper Hand, 2 Point 4 Children, The Brittas Empire, Brushstrokes.... So many good shows back in the day!”
Zoe Penny was a big fan of the twists and turns in the anthology series Tales of the Unexpected - which were based on short stories by Roald Dahl.
She wrote: “Tales of the Unexpected, Corrie when it was funny n full of legends, Rent a Ghost, Incredible Hulk and the A team for Sat teatime”.
Though a return has already aired, Janice Brown said she was keen to see a return of The Crystal Maze with original host Richard O'Brien
Natalia Hobson also has a taste for 1990s nostalgia.
“Who remembers the word?” she wrote.
“I use to watch it with my older sister as it was on way past my bedtime.”
Kieran McGuire says the BBC series 999, with Michael Buerk, should return.
That show’s reconstruction of horrifying real-life accidents and perilous rescues haunted the dreams of most children between 1992 - 2003.
Plenty of you mentioned classic children’s TV shows, including Knightmare, Moonstone, Renford Rejects and Round the Twist.
“We love a bit of Chucklevision in my house "To you to me",” Sarah Lawson commented.
While Danny Lee Davies added: “Timmy mallet i thought that was great especially when the contestants were answering questions and he use wack them on head with the toy mallet”
Christine Emelone wrote: “That's so Raven- loved it as a kid when she would have her visions and see into the future”
The Wonder Years, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Home Improvement, Byker Grove, Six Million Dollar Man, Eurotrash, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Blind Date and Gladiators all had honourable mentions.
While Anna Davies called for the return of Prisoner Cell Block H “with the wobbly walls of course”.
Liviu Radu had a novel idea for a new series of Blackadder.
“Blackadder for a fifth series,” she wrote.
“Edmund would be a rich kid but rebelling against his family’s status as a 1970s punk living in a bed sit.
“Baldrick would be the family’s butler who was sent to babysit him whilst he got through his “rebellious” phase.
“Obviously Rowan and Tony are too old now but it would be class.”
While Eunice Sanby called for Coronation Street to return to the era of classic comic characters.
“Old coronation when Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples was in it,” she wrote.
“It was comical then not all this violence.”
Any other suggestions? Have your say in the comments section!
