From the book REBORN IN THE USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home by Roger Bennett. Copyright © 2021 by In Loving Memory of the Recent Past 2 Inc. From Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.
Sunday nights in 1980s Britain were the loneliest nights of all. The nation still took its day of rest very seriously. Stores were closed. No professional sports were scheduled. Sundays felt like a vast, barren landscape that British television did little to enliven. Its meager offering of just three channels reinforced the somber mood, unleashing a battery of church broadcasts filled with hymn singing and pious sermonizing as well as the occasional moldy antiques road show.