🕺 1970s

1970s 1970

Curly Wurly

Cadbury's lattice of caramel, advertised by Terry Scott dressed as a schoolboy, and the subject of a national shrinkage conspiracy.

🍬 Sweets & Chocolate

1970s 1970

Spangles

The sweet everyone over forty brings up unprompted. Discontinued in 1984, briefly revived, and mourned ever since.

🍬 Sweets & Chocolate

1970s 1970

Test Card F

The BBC's colour test card: Carole Hersee playing noughts and crosses with a toy clown called Bubbles, broadcast for decades.

📺 Telly

1970s 1970

The Raleigh Chopper

High-back seat, ape-hanger bars, gear lever on the crossbar and a front wheel that lifted if you breathed.

🚗 Cars & Transport🧸 Toys & Games

1970s 1971

Space Hopper

You sat on it, gripped the horns, and bounced down the road at roughly walking pace with enormous effort.

🧸 Toys & Games

1970s 1971

The Tin Bath And The Immersion Heater

Hot water you had to plan an hour ahead, and a switch in the airing cupboard that started family arguments.

🛋️ Around The House

1970s 1972

The Ford Cortina Mk3

Britain's best-selling car, parked outside half the houses on every new estate in the country.

🚗 Cars & Transport

1970s 1973

Angel Delight

Butterscotch or strawberry powder that turned half a pint of milk into a mousse in about ninety seconds.

🍽️ Food & Drink🍬 Sweets & Chocolate

1970s 1973

Green Shield Stamps Becoming Argos

Argos opened in 1973, built directly on the Green Shield Stamps catalogue business, and invented a very British way to shop.

🏬 Shops & High Street

1970s 1974

Bagpuss

Thirteen episodes. That is all there ever were, and it is one of the best-loved British programmes ever made.

📺 Telly

1970s 1974

Ceefax

Text pages broadcast in the gaps of the TV signal: news, football scores, and page 302 for the weather.

📺 Telly📟 Tech & Gadgets

1970s 1974

Platform Shoes

Everybody wore them, including men, including your dad, and there are photographs.

👖 Fashion

1970s 1974

The Three-Day Week And Power Cuts

Electricity restricted to three days a week for commercial users, and rolling blackouts at home through the winter.

🛋️ Around The House

1970s 1974

Watching The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club

Granada recreated a working men's club in a studio: singers, comics, a gavel and a bar.

📺 Telly🎵 Music

1970s 1975

Findus Crispy Pancakes

Semicircles of breadcrumbed pancake filled with minced beef or cheese, and hot enough to cause actual injury.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1975

The Flared Trouser

Flares got wider every year until about 1976, then vanished almost overnight when punk arrived.

👖 Fashion

1970s 1976

Chopper Bike Playing Cards In The Spokes

Peg a playing card against the spokes and your bike made a noise. That was the whole technology.

🧸 Toys & Games🚗 Cars & Transport

1970s 1976

The Fondue Set

A wedding present that came out for one dinner party in 1976 and then lived at the back of a cupboard.

🛋️ Around The House🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1977

The Cassette Recorder And Taping The Charts

Sunday evening, Radio 1, a C90 in the deck, and a lifetime of recordings with the last two seconds of the DJ on them.

🎵 Music📟 Tech & Gadgets

1970s 1978

Grange Hill

Phil Redmond's series about a London comprehensive, with bullying, truancy and a sausage on a fork in the title sequence.

📺 Telly✏️ School

1970s 1978

Panini Football Stickers

Foil-wrapped packets of five, an album with 500 spaces, and a shiny badge you would trade three players for.

⚽ Sport📰 Comics & Magazines

1970s 1979

Pot Noodle

Dried noodles in a pot with a sachet of soy sauce, launched in Britain in 1979 and never off a student shelf since.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1979

The Sodastream

Carbonate your own tap water at home, then ruin it with concentrate that tasted almost but not quite like cola.

🍽️ Food & Drink📟 Tech & Gadgets