Ian Jack’s article in the Guardian, marking the centenary of the BBC, has brought all sorts of memories flooding back. I always thought I had an ITV childhood, watching the commercial channel that, during the 60s and 70s, was the BBC's only rival. I was a Magpie kid, preferring its modish take on children’s tv to the BBC’s more staid and earnest Blue Peter. I can mark the progress of my childhood years purely by naming the Gerry Anderson programmes that illuminated it: Super Car, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds. I avidly watched World in Action, The Sweeney, The Big Match and The World At War. My father was a big fan of Danger Man and the Prisoner. And yet, when I think of it, the BBC played a huge role in shaping my early years. We didn’t rent a tv set until I was five years old, when Nanny Bragg died and we took over the whole house - until then she had lived downstairs and we upstairs. Even after that watershed moment, the wireless was always on during lunchtime at weekends, given there was nothing much to watch on tv at that hour. Like Ian Jack, I have certain songs lodged into my consciousness thanks to the Beeb. Whenever I hear the opening lines of ‘Ramblin’ Rose’ by Nat King Cole, the memory of a thousand roast dinners fills my head: the steamed window in the kitchen door, the crisp taste of my mum’s Yorkshire puddings, the shrill hiss of the pressure cooker on the gas stove. Sundays were always Family Favourites on the BBC Light Programme followed by Jimmy Clitheroe or Round the Horne, depending on the season of the year. When, aged 11, I was bought a reel to reel tape machine for Christmas, the BBC provided a never ending source of songs, taped mostly from the chart programme (one of the few times when you could be sure a favourite song would be played). And although my Sunday viewing might be dominated by ITV - Sunday was Gerry Anderson Day and The Big Match - who could resist BBC1's double header of Dr Who and the Monkees at Saturday teatime? 1/3 - Swipe for the remainder of my post. And view the article via the link in my bio.