Thanks for that - it largely parallels my film watching but I probably saw more films in the cinema as my Dad would pick us up from school, take us to the cinema and then sleep through the film. He always recalled those times fondly, especially Return if the Jedi where he was out before the lights went down and only woke up when the credits started to roll.

At our house, we were lucky as my dad had purchased one of the first UK VHS video recorders and it was a beast. This thing was huge, weighed a ton and was made by Hitachi.

You were indeed lucky - for something like my 12th or 13th birthday my Dad brought his school’s VHS recorder home so my friends and I could watch a couple of films. My childhood memory is that it was the size and weight of a small car. We then had to go to the video rental shop (with regulation sticky carpets) and chose carefully as that was pretty much it for a year. I’d been reading Starburst so felt confident in my picks: Dark Star and Alien. I still can’t fault it. Another year, I recall I went for Silent Running which left me and my friends in bits.