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Tunnock’s tea cakes, Depeche Mode and non-stop smoking – how TV is bringing the 80s to life


Great piece in The Guardian featuring 'The Curse' (production designer ANNA SHELDRAKE), 'A Town Called Malice' (production designer MARCUS WOOKEY, set decorator CAROLINE GREVILLE-MORRIS) and 'Nolly' (production designer BEN SMITH):

"From specialising in retro criminal lingo to buying 100-year-old Christmas decorations, a batch of new dramas are obsessively reincarnating the 80s. Not that they always get it right.

It’s all too easy to take period drama for granted. Flick on the TV, open your laptop, and there you are: transported to a world that is at once foreign and deeply familiar. But how do you go about building a small-screen vision of the past? And what if that past isn’t from centuries ago, but within many viewers’ lifetimes? This spring, a series of dramas is doing just that – bringing the early 80s back to life. According to the people behind them, it’s a process that is at once trickier, less pernickety and a lot more Judith Chalmers-based than you might imagine..."