I do love watching old spy and family comedy programmes on my streaming subscription. The programmes I’ve bought were first broadcast in 1964 and 1965 and it is fascinating, from a an interior design and decorating point of view, how advanced the Americans were back then. I hadn’t intended to carry out a comparison between the two but in the US show, the hostess lives in a brand new detached house and has such modern things in her kitchen – a dishwasher for starters! We didn’t get them over here for another 20 years. All the units are bulky, as is her massive electric range style cooker with top oven and separate rotisserie . . . The rest of the set was designed to include the latest trend in garish wallpaper and toning drapes at the windows. The sofa is a long sleek number that actually looks incredibly uncomfortable. In the UK programmes, the two ‘stars’ live in what we’re supposed to assume are top of the range apartments in London. They are so rediculously old fashioned yet the producers had them kitted out with the ‘latest thing’. We are much on a par with the States now and much of the modern home is designed here, not there.