Entertainment For Lively Minds
Squirming in front of the TV when watching with the folks
I guess this doesn't happen so much these days - either because youngsters are more blasé, and generally everyone's a bit more relaxed about such things, or, obviously because teenagers have their own personal entertainment centres located elsewhere, but I recall a number of occasions of mortification, embarrassment and even falling out over TV I watched en famille, as it were.
There was the time I asked to watch 'Aquarius', an arts show, when we were at my gran's flat and this featured topless Japanese ladies in a '70s performance happening affair. 'Think we better turn this off dear, it's not really what you wanted to see is it?'. Well I was a bit young to properly appreciate such sauciness, still, I was quite intrigued. Then in a similar vein back at home it was 'Omnibus', I think, where Bryan Ferry's old mentor Richard Hamilton was being shown working on a series of depictions of attractive young women posing with toilet paper in some woods somewhere, bottoms suitably exposed, by way of a sort of pop art parody. There was a lot of this kind of thing in the seventies. Father couldn't tolerate more than a few minutes of this nonsense. I had a bit of curiosity regarding modern art, or perhaps it was something else rather more fundamental attracting my attention.
Then there was a newspaper thrown to the floor in disgust by the old man over Rory Gallagher's unpleasant racket on 'In Concert', one Saturday early evening, and similarly with Ian Dury on 'Rock Goes To College' another time. 'Who's that weirdo?' I was naturally indignant about these terminations after a hard day's graft at my Sainsbury's Saturday job. And no bedroom TV let alone i-player, or Youtube option.
Worst was the dreaded intimate scene in a film or play. It was actually 'Butch Cassidy..' one christmas. Very mild love scene of course, but somehow deeply embarrassing with grandparents present in the room and all of us quiet and attentive.
So I presume we don't get this much now. I am not a parent though but I am aware of what goes on via relatives and friends. Anyone else recall such awkward shared family TV experiences from their past?
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Where There's Life
Miriam Stoppard and frank medical discussions ... More detail than an early teen could handle - especially in front of the parents.
Every Wednesday my folks and I...
would have a take away curry and watch 'Dallas' together.
I would have been around 12 years old at the time and found that the sight of comely actress Victoria Principal - how shall I put this? - played havoc with my nether regions. Particularly when she was in the Southfork pool, which was a regular feature of the series. I would reach for the nearest cushion and ever so slowly inch it closer to me until it covered my bits. I prayed that my Mum was unaware of this; I am sure now that I might as well have had a sign above my head saying "Pam Ewing just gave me an erection".
The Nether Regions.............
........and their first session track Pam Ewing just gave me an erection. TMFTL
The Nether Regions...
"More from them later, when you're a bit older."
Still happens
I'm in my mid-forties, parents nearly 80. Swearing and nude scenes still make me offer to make some tea. In fact, I think I am more embarrassed than they are.
I once watched Bad Boy Bubby with my mum and I'm
still blushing. I imagine it would be excrutiating if viewed on your own. This is the storyline below copied from IMDB
Bubby's buxom mother tricked him to stay locked at home for thirty years, during which she mounts and abuses him. Buddy ends up in the streets groping random women until finding a nurse who is even more buxom than his late mother.
Oh Christ!
Is that the film where he murders his parents by suffocating them with clingfilm? It's hard enough to watch on your own, let alone with the folks.
I've tried to block it out as much as possible
but I think that's right about the clingfilm, although I don't think he has a dad. Clingfilm would have come in handy while I was watching it
Embarrasment can come from the least likely places. My mum was watching Seinfeld and she asked me "What part of the female anatomy rhymes with Dolores?"
I loved The Kenny Everett Show but not for him.
And the effort of pretending that his comedy stylings amused me used to make my face go all red. Honestly.
Fancy a bit of phone sex?
We were watching a recording of The Trip earlier with my 10 year old in the room reading.... at this point we decided she needed a bath.
I'm sure millions were hugely embarrassed by Men Behaving Badly's (last?) Xmas episode which featured a large number of wanking references... What were the BBC thinking?
My Dad let me stay up to watch Casanova (the Frank Finlay version) when I was about 13 or 14. Which was nice.
I'm glad you reminded me of that
There is something quite fundamental about that Men Behaving Badly episode I didn't understand. One of the storylines was that Gary found that he couldn't "perform" due to ED, as they call it.
Yet then we see his bed covered in tissues that have rendered sticky by his own man muck. Can you see why I am confused?
Depends on the cause of the ED...
a physical problem would be more likely to cause erectile failure in all circumstances, whereas a psychological problem might mean a failure of erections with a partner but no difficulties in a solo performance.
*tries to resist making a joke about being "upped"*
It's nice to see I've raised a little enthusiasm here...
Damn. I'm sorry...
Thanks
I thought it was an all-or-nothing condition, so I am glad you have put me, er, straight.
I tried to avoid a knob gag, believe me.
It's a pleasure
to give a helping hand.
Oh for god's sake someone stop me.
The Naked Civil Servant
I watched this with my mother and brother when I was ten or so. There were some awkward silences. Many years later, we watched A Village Affair, the Joanna Trollope adaptation, which contained a number of scenes of Sapphic passion. I did my best to feign uninterest...
Sapphic Passion and Disinterest
A hard trick to pull off.
Sapphic Passion and Disinterest...
three more from their seminal album "A Hard Trick to Pull Off" later.
Sapphic Passion and Disinterest
Solicitors?
Or maybe a 90s ad agency?
Or a crime-fighting duo.
Sapphic Passion, a private detective whose loyal sidekick Disinterest loves her from afar...
Sapphic Passion and seminal.
Words which just dont belong together really.
Many years ago...
...in English class I managed to embarrass my English teacher.
When asked to name a favourite story I accidentally referred to The Story Of O instead of The Wonderful O by James Thurber.
I have never seen anyone go so red or as quickly as my teacher. Although the slip was made in complete innocence the embarrassment was so infectious I went as red as my teacher, which must have sealed my guilt at the time.
When I found out the source of his embarrassment years later I could only wince at my junior faux pas.
My boys
can't watch Nigella with us, lot's of smirking, shifting in seats and eventual departure. I cannot watch Nigella with my wife for the same reasons.
I even feel a bit uncomfortable
watching it on my own. Talk of giving your pudding inner thigh wibble and mention of her plumptious beauties and such like does make me cringe rather. Somehow I end up watching quite often though.
I'm reminded of a DVD a mate loaned to me.
It was of an, erm, male-interest nature. Anyway. One of the actresses was interviewed about her time in the adult-film industry and was asked at what age she had lost her virginity. She went all coy and bashful and wouldn't answer because "I'd be embarrassed because my mum might be watching this."
It was quite amusing to think of her mum berating her about her losing her virginity at a slightly young age whilst, presumably, being perfectly OK about her being filmed getting shagged bandy via any available orifice by a sequence of hairy-arsed blokes.
Was I the only one trying to keep a straight face
as Hughie Green said of a young pianist,
'For Wayne Kerr, Opportunity knocks'
Watching 'Five Easy Pieces', as Jack Nicholson and Karen Black romp athletically (she wrapped round him, hanging on to the door lintel), my mother, wandering in and out, had to comment, 'What's he trying to do, abort her?', as I tried not to make eye contact - lovely !
Watching Tony Palmer's 'All My Loving', my father declared grumpily, 'They're all obsessed with sex' as Hendrix made love to his guitar, and went off to bed.
Quite recently
At the GLW's father's house. He was flicking through the channels looking for something to watch.
"How about the Inbetweeners" pipes up Mrs Milky. "It's supposed to be really funny."
Cue half an hour of sheer embarrassment for her. I was laughing; I think her Dad might've been too.
Rude Boy
My mum & dad never went out...they rarely even got out off the sofa.
A mate lent me a tape of the Clash movie Rude Boy, and I was "allowed" to watch it, and of course they're sitting there watching it with me, the old man huffing and puffing, but, you know, I loved the Clash, so I could filter out the noises off...until the scene in the toilets where Ray Gange gets a blowjob. Excruciating!
My Nan, Ben Elton and Tampons
Many moons ago I visited my Nan to give her a bit of company after my Grandad had died. Queue Ben Elton and a tampon/period sketch on the TV. My Nan loved it and I, despite being about 25 was deeply embarrassed.
Times do change but I still refuse to watch The Inbetweeners with my son (19) and daughter (15) in the room.
Top Of The Pops
I am the youngest of four so dear old Dad had probably sat quietly through a good few years of TOTP before Alice Cooper loomed onto our screen for the first time. The mere sight of Vince sent him into an absolute fury and needless to say a ten year old from the Black Country was hooked on this Rock n Roll degeneracy for life. Incidentally I can watch The Inbetweeners with my 15 yr old daughter but as for Jeremy Kyle AAAAARRRGGGHHHH
Butch Cassidy
"It was actually 'Butch Cassidy..' one christmas. Very mild love scene of course, but somehow deeply embarassing with grandparents present in the room and all of us quiet and attentive. "
I just had a vivid flashback of probably the same Christmas - 74/75 thereabouts? with my formidable Presbyterian Gran in the room and Dad diving for the telly to switch over.
Embarrassed
by my spelling - now corrected.
It would be around that time. A certain self consciousness about such matters was developing fast for me. It was probably the TV premiere of the film in fact, when such things were a big deal, prior to video etc.
Edit - this was meant to be a reply to Sebastian
Katherine Ross
Certainly one of the first women on the screen who stirred up the early Beach hormones.
Still one of my favourite films.
Yeah
I'm with you on both points.
A couple of years ago
my mother was staying for Christmas. One of my pressies from Mrs D was the latest Frank Skinner dvd, so on Christmas night we settled down to watch it. Two hours of little else but anal sex 'jokes'. Oh how we laughed. I haven't cringed so much in her company since a few years ago when she asked me what wanking was.
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Sean Bean squiring someone else's missus up against a tree. Oh for a TV in my own room.