The programmes you weren’t allowed to stay up for

The nine o'clock watershed did a lot of work in British households. On one side of it, you. On the other side, whatever your parents were watching with the sound turned down a bit.

So you went up, and you lay there, and you listened. You could usually get the theme tune through the floor, and if the door was open at the bottom of the stairs you could get most of the dialogue too, minus the quiet bits.

The forbidden list

The Sweeney. Hammer horror on a Friday night, which frightened a generation half to death through a closed door. Play for Today, which was often the sort of thing that would still cause an argument now. Monty Python, banned in a surprising number of houses for reasons that were never fully explained.

And then the ones you were allowed but shouldn't have been — Doctor Who behind the sofa, the public information films about railway lines and farm machinery, and whatever it was in Wednesday Play that your mother turned off halfway through.

The negotiated exceptions

Christmas, obviously. The Morecambe and Wise special, and everybody up. A big film on Boxing Day. The Eurovision. A cup final replay. Bonfire Night if the fireworks ran late.

And the greatest prize of the lot, which was being allowed to stay up because there was something on the news, and being aware even at nine years old that it must be serious.

Why it stuck

Because you only got one go at it. No catch-up, no repeat next week at your convenience, no box set. If you missed it, you missed it, and everyone at school the next day had seen it and you hadn't.

Which is precisely why you remember the ones you got away with.