Have your favourite TV genres changed with age?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The festive break is the perfect time to slump on the sofa, realise there's not a lot on the box so start flicking around the channels and watch repeats of old shows. I've realised that my actual favourite TV genres now are travel and cookery programmes. The older the better - Floyd, Stein, Palin. Oh, and murder mysteries. Columbo and Quincey. The ones that, had they come on the telly after ski sunday when I was a teenager, I'd have walked out of the room rather than watched.

And on the flip side, whereas I'd have insisted on watching any and every episode of Star Trek: the new generation in 1991, I watch re-runs of that now and think 'what a load of crap that is'.

The programmes haven't changed. They're exactly the same ones I loved or hated 25-30 years ago. So it's me that changed. I am now a different audience. Does anyone else get that with your viewing habits?

[Sporting]

I'm with you on travel and cookery programmes. As for Star Trek I'm an original series man. And Columbo is the best ever. But mostly now, apart from zapping around for the aforementioned programmes, the telly is for sport and mainly football.

I used to watch news bulletins as well but now the internet has taken over. Films too, but for some reason I don't watch many films any more. Maybe my attention span has shortened. Maybe no: it has.

[3 Colours Red]

I have the opposite problem to you, Rogin in so much that my tastes haven't changed to the point where I have to go on YouTube binges or risk downloading dodgy torrents to watch exactly the same things I was watching 20-30 years ago. My eyes have become far too accustomed to highly compressed 240p VHS rips.

[slackster]

It’s more a case of how I consume TV that’s changed, which dictates what sort of programmes I watch and those which mostly pass me by. Whereas watching “live” terrestrial TV saw me viewing a wide variety of shows, now I stream nearly everything and so confine myself mostly to drama, films and boxsets.

I do have a look on the bbc i player every couple of weeks to see if there’s any interesting things I feel I must see (usually on 4) - but sitcoms, lifestyle programmes, chatshows, current affairs and other filler rarely get seen anymore.

[Satchmo Distel]

Excellent point. Since I had the power to choose, it's been either dramas (crime or historical) and documentaries for me. The biggest change is that I dropped panel comedy shows like HIGNY because they just don't do them in the US and British TV humour has got stale for me.

[Sporting]

To answer the question again, I used to be a fervent fan of Watch With Mother, middle-class kid such as I was. Andy Pandy, The Woodentops and The Flowerpot Men were early faves.

[Guy Profumo]

The festive break is the perfect time to slump on the sofa, realise there's not a lot on the box so start flicking around the channels and watch repeats of old shows. I've realised that my actual favourite TV genres now are travel and cookery programmes. The older the better - Floyd, Stein, Palin. Oh, and murder mysteries. Columbo and Quincey. The ones that, had they come on the telly after ski sunday when I was a teenager, I'd have walked out of the room rather than watched.

And on the flip side, whereas I'd have insisted on watching any and every episode of Star Trek: the new generation in 1991, I watch re-runs of that now and think 'what a load of crap that is'.

The programmes haven't changed. They're exactly the same ones I loved or hated 25-30 years ago. So it's me that changed. I am now a different audience. Does anyone else get that with your viewing habits?

I went off Quincy when the lead character started arguing seriously mentally ill people should be incarcerated with his "guilty but insane" rant.

Cunt that he was.

(Klugman's own opinions, or the producers and scriptwriters?)

[Benjm]

I'm a late adopter of Columbo and it is providing suitable New Year's Day comfort entertainment at this very moment. We're only half an hour in, so the main man hasn't turned up yet.

I'm curious about the extent to which Peter Falk's co-stars were forewarned about the flourishes and bits of business in his performances and how much it was sprung upon them as a surprise.

[Sporting]

I'm a late adopter of Columbo and it is providing suitable New Year's Day comfort entertainment at this very moment. We're only half an hour in, so the main man hasn't turned up yet.

I'm curious about the extent to which Peter Falk's co-stars were forewarned about the flourishes and bits of business in his performances and how much it was sprung upon them as a surprise.

Which episode?

[Benjm]

Well groomed psychiatrist George Hamilton has bumped off his lover's husband in a confrontation that got out of hand. Columbo isn't buying their story about a mysterious gang of home invaders having done the deed.

The performance question was more of a general one; PF has been quite subdued so far in this instalment.

[Sporting]

twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1212312508171771908

[Diable Rouge]

http://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1212312508171771908

Like so, Sporting.

[Sporting]

Ta, I'm crap at this,