Watching TV these days is like living in a perpetual time warp. It is possible to flit through dozens of channels and hundreds of programmes hardly aware that what you have been watching originated in 1987, 1979 or whenever.

The only real giveaways are the graininess (late 60s), static camera angles and flared trousers (early 70s) and the over exposure of Noel Edmonds (late 70s and early 80s). Recently, in an idle moment, when chancing on Dave or Blighty or some other obscurely named channel, I happened upon the delightful Felicity Kendall and hilarious Richard Briers in an early repeat of The Good Life. The episode revolved around Tom's purchase of a muck spreader and its impact on the polite neighbourhood of Purley or wherever the series was located. The programmes always worked well because the clash in values between the pairs of characters were splendidly parodied through the environmental initiatives undertaken by the Goodes. And it was all very 1970s...or was it? In an era where re-cycling, fair trade, biodiversity and the carbon footprint are now features of everyday living, it interesting to ruminate on how attitudes and policies have changed.