On Do You See they’re having a pleasant little chat about childhood and film, as set off by Police Academy gaining a place in the world’s first scientifically-based Top 100 Films Ever ever.
Now I’m so little of a film buff that films very rarely conjure deep feelings or deep-feeling memories. But I’ve been reading about licensing hours in Andrew Barr’s Drink: A Social History and I saw a reference to lunchtime closing on David Stubbs’s Melody Maker reminiscences.
And I remember: it was a summer afternoon in 1988. I was out celebrating the new all-day opening hours with my friend Ian. The pubs were open: it seemed rude not to! Afternoon closure had been such a fixture that to drink through seemed like the golden joy of a lock-in, which had been such a rare privilege for a pair of 18-year-olds.
We got drunk on Newquay Steam Bitter, an early doomed attempt at selling premium real ale to the funny-top Grolsch market. And Ian worked in the kiosk at the local cinema and had to go to work so he dragged me along that early evening and let me in free.
Police Academy 5. I suppose I saw 15 minutes of the film before I was fast asleep, and that remains the only part of the Police Academy franchise I have experienced. Nevertheless I feel very positively towards the series because, for me, it still means afternoons in the boozer. And I’m convinced #5 is the best.