Joe Moran, listed on Wikipedia as a social historian, wrote a lovely book called Queueing For Beginners which I came to after reading a piece on commuting he wrote for The Guardian. I see he has a blog now which is full of witty, interesting, pondersome observations on the minutae of everyday life. Check it out here and here is a small sample on the death of Ceefax.
'Ceefax’s go-to pages were well known to initiates: 102 for news, 302 for football, 400 for weather, 430 for train timetables, 888 for subtitles – good for watching Top of the Pops if you wanted to decipher the lyrics. Some people would watch the football on Ceefax, staring at the 0-0 score and willing a goal for their team. I suspect this is more gripping than it sounds.
Anyway, RIP pages from Ceefax, little Zen moments of stillness and contemplation in the otherwise endless flow of television. We have no need of you now that television is on all the time and it will never, ever end.'
