Until I was 11, we only had radio and the only early programme I can remember hearing was the Goon Show. Later I became interested in popular music and would listen to the weekly top ten.
A BBC children's hour programme called "Regional Round" involved a team of two (boy and girl) from each region competing in a quiz. I was elected to represent Wales and duly took the bus down to the Cardiff studio. We had our headphones on and off we went... I seem to remember that we (actually I since the girl failed to help) did quite well except for recognising tunes.
Somewhat later our school was invited to take part in a television debate. The topic was "this house believes television is a waste of time". A BBC person came to the school to listen to some speeches we had prepared (I suspect my father, who had been a keen debater, had fed me some good ideas). The upshot was that I was one of the small group chosen. What happened next was a surprise to me. The debate was to be shown on television live (no video tape in those days) and was to appear spontaneous. So we had many many rehearsals, script tweaks, and much practice at the BBC in Cardiff. We were told to write our script on a postcard and put it in a pocket. If we needed this, we made a pre-arranged sign and a different camera viewed the audience (from the school) while we glanced at the crib sheet. We had all been so thoroughly drilled that nobody needed this back-up. The national press reviewed the programme and my assertion that the "What's my line?" panel were dinosaurs was reported.
Initially there was only one channel available: BBC Wales from the Wenvoe transmitter in black and white. I made my own TV to watch this. I can't remember much from the early days: being a bit scared by Quatermass, Dimbleby describing the Italian Spaghetti harvest (on April 1), the intermissions between programmes (potter's wheel,..),..
Much later (2003), I was invited to participate in the Channel
4 series "Wreck Detectives" in a programme about the wreck of the
Lelia. As the "salvor in possession", I was responsible for the wreck
and we agreed two goals that might be readily achieved in a one week
exploration by the team. The team arrived in Liverpool and wanted to
film some shore-based introductory material. I suggested they come to
my house and we could do the interviews overlooking the sea (Dee
estuary) nearby. My wife asked how many would be coming: I guessed 6;
nearly 20 showed up! There was only one cameraman, so we did each
interview three times: once with the camera looking at me, once at the
interviewer who would repeat the questions and one from a distance as we
both muttered and nodded. Now I know what "noddies" are.
The first day we went out by boat, we were a bit far from the
wreck (so umbilicals were at the limit) and we missed slack water.
Following days, the weather got worse and we really only had one more
dive: jumping off the mother ship and following its anchor chain
(bouncing about in the waves) to the seabed, when I did a search to
find the wreck -- and off we went. What was useful to me, as custodian of
the wreck, was the library research that the team did. This was
incorporated by me in the book Lelia.
I have also been interviwed on local radio (Radio Merseyside) to help publicise my books about local shipwrecks.
In the days before television, cinemas were widespread and well attended. There were three cinemas close to where I lived in Whitchurch. I remember going with my father to watch Marx Brothers films - which he loved. My favourite scene was from Duck Soup when Groucho calls for his chauffeur and Harpo arrives driving a motorcycle and sidecar. Groucho gets in the sidecar and Harpo drives off on the motorcycle leaving the sidecar behind. Next time Groucho insists on getting on the motorcycle while Harpo gets in the sidecar which promptly drives off leaving Groucho stranded again.
At school we had film showings occasionally - I was often the projectionist.
As I got older, I remember Brigitte Bardot as making quite an impression... Later still I was sometimes in the back row of the cinema paying more attention to my companion than to the film.
As a student I often went to the cinema in Oxford: the Scala showed foreign films.
When in the USA, we wanted to see the first Star Wars film that had recently come out and went to a drive-in cinema. This was a new experience, you parked on a little ramp facing the screen and a speaker was available to hang from your side window. Even then I remember being impressed that some locals backed a van up to the ramp, opened the back doors, and had comfortable seats ready inside.
In the days before television, theatre was relatively popular. An annual trip to the pantomime in Cardiff was appropriate for a child.
One hilarious episode occurred when the school wanted to enrich our experience of Shakespeare (Macbeth) which was the O-level set text. They hired Osiris players to perform for us. This was three elderly ladies and their performance was truly memorable - for all the wrong reasons.
Schools put on a play every year and they were quite well attended. I suffered from having to go to the play in my father's school as well. At Whitchurch later on, I was usually involved with the lighting.
As a student I attended professional and amateur plays at Oxford. I remember hitching to London to see Beyond the Fringe.
Because my father was a schoolteacher, latterly headmaster, we took our summer holiday in August. Before the family had a car, we took the train or boat. Accommodation was usually a guest house in the earlier years, for a fortnight.
In 1951, my mother took me to London for a few days to visit the Festival of Britain.
I also went several times to summer camp with the scouts (for 2 weeks) to Glen Usk Park, to Talybont and to Trellech.
Holidays with children 1968 on (excluding physics and ski trips)
Holidays after children were grown up (1984 on)