Angela Scanlon hosts a sometimes painful look back at the year when Labour was in power, the millennium bug threatened and Nasty Nick got thrown off Big Brother
I imagine it is my age, given that I was in my late teens when the decade began, but The Noughties (BBC Two) stretches and bends time like Uri Geller having a go at a spoon. This 10-part nostalgia-based clip show – yes, that is 10 episodes, for 10 weeks, one instalment for every year – picks out the cultural highlights of the years 2000 to 2009, although highlights is a word that is sometimes kinder than the subjects deserve.
Each week, two comedians will talk to host Angela Scanlon about what life was like in the golden olden days. It kicks off with the year 2000, “possibly the most hyped year ever”, so no pressure, and Ellie Taylor (The Mash Report/Mock the Week) joins comedian Geoff Norcott – who is rightwing, although he doesn’t like to mention it. After they have watched a load of old archive footage to prod their memories, they talk to Scanlon about what they recall. Part of me wonders why anyone is indulging in nostalgia at the moment. I had to sort out my phone’s camera roll recently and looking at photographs from 12 months ago was enough to bring a tear, or tier, to my eye. Watching a Labour government see in the new millennium on a wave of optimism, cheer and only minimal paranoia about computers was a little too much.
