It’s come to pass that the first decade of the second millennium has reached a crashing end (well, more limped over the line) and the dawn of a new era commences. Not really, it’s all just numbers getting bigger but go along with it for the sake of this article at least.
BBC Two decided to celebrate this phenomenon in numeracy with a three-part documentary series History of Now on this all important decade. And be thankful it’s on Two and actually treated somewhat seriously, if BBC Three got a whiff of it there would be endless ex-reality TV star talking heads and clips of fat people falling over taken from YouTube to represent the noughties. Although that doesn’t explain why there was so much Muse on the soundtrack.
The Noughties in Britain
A key point made at the start was that age has developed into the social divide where the old and the young drifted further apart while people in their 40s refused to grow old gracefully by pretending to be teenagers. The latter especially took up plenty of time on the first part of History of Now, you know the sort who could have been seen at one stage trundling around on micro scooters or reading Harry Potter in supposedly ironic clothing.