Watching Neighbours Twice a Day...: How ’90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'A wonderful blend of nostalgia, hilarity and personal anecdotes that only Josh Widdicombe could deliver' James Acaster 'If you read only one book by Josh Widdicombe this year, make it this one' Jack Dee 'Beautifully written, cleverly crafted and charmingly funny' Adam Hills 'This is a book about growing up in the '90s told through the thing that mattered most to me, the television programmes I watched. For my generation television was the one thing that united everyone. There were kids at my school who liked bands, kids who liked football and one weird kid who liked the French sport of petanque , however, we all loved Gladiators , Neighbours and Pebble Mill with Alan Titchmarsh (possibly not the third of these).' In his first memoir, Josh Widdicombe tells the story of a strange rural childhood, the kind of childhood he only realised was weird when he left home and started telling people about it. From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother to lock the front door, they didn't even have a key. Using a different television show of the time as its starting point for each chapter Watching Neighbours Twice a Day... is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of '90s television and culture. It will discuss everything from the BBC convincing him that Michael Parkinson had been possessed by a ghost, to Josh's belief that Mr Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to what it's like being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol. It tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one else could watch it with them. A childhood memoir about growing up in the middle of nowhere and watching too much TV, from beloved comedian, Josh Widdicombe. 'Read any history of the Nineties in Britain and you will read about Britpop, Blair, the birth of the Premier League and the rise of new lads. I played no part in any of these events. Growing up in a tiny rural village on Dartmoor, no bands came within 100 miles, all the local farmers voted Tory, our nearest football team was in the fourth division, and the closest I got to being a new lad was when my older brother let me drink some of his Hooch.' In Watching Neighbours Twice a Day, much-loved comedian Josh Widdicombe tells the story of a strange rural childhood, the kind of childhood he only realised was weird when he left home and started telling people about it. From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother locking the front door, they didn't even have a key. Using a different television show of the time as its starting point for each chapter Watching Neighbours Twice a Day is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of 90s television and culture. It will discuss everything from the dangers of recreating Gladiators in your front room, to Josh's belief that Mr Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol. Together it tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one could watch it with them