Well, I have clung onto the wreckage for another week and am still enjoying sitting in my garden. A robin now joins me each day on a branch about four feet away. Is that a sign of winter coming?

I see television is becoming awash with old game shows returning to our screens. Is it lazy television producers or is there a growth in nostalgia?

I am growing a bit weary that the pool of talent they use is so small when there are so many talented people out there worth a chance and they would work cheap, which used to be a plus. Instead they choose Bradley Walsh and a chap called Rylan, both of whom are in danger of suffering viewer fatigue. Now do not get me wrong, I have met them both at Elstree Studios and they are great chaps and talented. I just feel spread the jobs around especially in these difficult times for showbiz.

The BBC are under fire again for the crazy fees they pay their top stars. It is usually justified by saying that if they did not, the commercial channels would pinch them. I am not sure. Would people stop watching Match Of The Day if Gary Lineker was replaced or stop listening to BBC Radio 2 if Zoe was not there ? It is easy to spend other people's money. I am happy to pay my licence fee and love the BBC but times are changing, as are viewing habits, and gravy trains usually end up derailing.

So Family Fortunes is apparently returning. The show was originally shot at the old ATV Studios in Borehamwood and I often attended a recording. In 1983 they gave the job of host to veteran Max Bygraves, who was a family entertainment favourite for decades. Do you still have a SingalongaMax album? I sometimes put one on the turntable and do Knees Up Mother Brown and the Hokey Cokey but sitting down nowadays. To think I could once limbo dance and do the conga. Those were the days my friends, we thought that they would never end. I feel a song coming on.

I have digressed again. I remember attending two recordings of Max hosting Family Fortunes in I think 1983 at ATV or Central as it was then known. Both stay in my mind for the final part where the contestant has to name something. On one occasion a contestant was asked what do you associate with Christmas and he answered turkey but then his mind seized with nerves. That was his answer to what would you take to the beach and so on. Max really struggled to retain composure. On another recording the contestant was asked to name something made of rubber and he answered 'a condom'. That was a no no for family entertainment and I believe the show was never broadcast. I wonder what would happen if such a reply was given in the new show? I think we have all grown up a bit in the past 37 years but such an answer might prove a problem for parents watching with their kids.

Max went to live in Australia but sadly in his last years suffered from dementia and died in 2012. Well, I must go now as Mrs Mills is on the turntable. Mind you I was not always a fossil. I wore brothel creepers and winkle pickers and was a hoodie in my day but we used to call them duffel coats so I have always been down with the dudes and hip to the beat.

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios