Born on 15 September 1984

Back in 1984, life felt a bit more tangible, didn't it? If you wandered into a local chippy, you’d likely be handed your haddock wrapped in a proper sheet of yesterday’s newspaper, the ink staining your fingers while you calculated if you had enough copper for a can of Top Deck shandy. It was a year of real extremes; we spent the evenings glued to the box for *The Young Ones* or watching the miners’ strike unfold on the damp 18-inch screen, yet we’d cheer ourselves up by humming along to Wham’s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.

" That summer was a proper scorcher, too—nothing but parched yellow grass and the smell of tarmac, while every kid on the street was obsessed with their Rubik's Clock or pleading for a Cabbage Patch Kid. At the cinema, *Ghostbusters* was the only ticket worth having, though we were all secretly terrified of the Child Catcher when *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang* inevitably repeated on telly. It was all Wagon Wheels, Bird’s Eye Viennetta for a treat, and the constant, clicking sound of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum loading a game that usually crashed anyway.

It wasn't perfect, but Lord, it had character.