Who's The Daddy: All aboard the Howard and Hilda Express
The most underrated sitcom of the 1980s is undoubtedly Ever Decreasing Circles, in which Richard Briers’ Martin Bryce watches his life slide out of view in quiet desperation while his relevance gradually diminishes as middle age carries on its relentless march.
It’s way funnier than I made it sound and it doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
Two of the show’s supporting characters are Howard and Hilda Hughes, a middle-aged couple whose names became a byword back then for people who’ve been together so long they wear matching his and hers outfits.
Yep, that couple you know that you’re thinking of right now.
I only mention it because last week me and The Boss bought a Howard and Hilda Railcard. They’re not actually called that, although they should be. National Rail missed a trick there. Their proper title is a Two Together Railcard, which gets you a handy third off train tickets, but only when you travel together. You’ll be able to spot us in the wild, we’re the ones with a tartan flask of steaming hot tea and a sighthound.
We used it for a night away at a swanky hotel in Manchester last weekend, a city which is an absolute rabbit warren to drive around at the best of times, so we left the car at home and let the train take the strain - with our identical Howard and Hilda rucksacks with a million zips, flaps, clips and pockets - and a charging point for your phone.
It’ll come in handy as the train is now our preferred method of travel to visit Daughter #1 and The Boyfriend, who’ve shacked up together in an eighth-floor flat in the middle of Manchester, next door to one of the city’s railway stations.
We’re both 56 now, and as time ticks on your tastes change. For instance, our radio station of choice is no longer Radio 2, which is now populated by the shrieking hellions who forced us to abandon Radio 1 when they gatecrashed it in the late 1990s.
Now we’re urban sophisticates of the North, we tune in to the corduroy boys and girls of Radio 4, which is worth every penny of the licence fee on its own. A station that you actually learn things from when you listen to it - all delivered in calm, measured voices. Which is just what you need in a world that went to the dogs 10 years ago.
To my ears, 99.9% of pop music recorded after 1996 sounds like Crazy Frog. So a radio station that hardly plays any is bliss.
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