Andy Mitchell from Radio Wave

Now we learn it’s all the rage not to bother getting dressed in a morning in the way people had been taught since birth, instead choosing to foist their unwashed selves on the nation like a scene from some 1960s sink drama.

In a scene reminiscent of Threads by Barry Hines, ordinary folk have taken to venturing outside into the world in cheap nighties, PJs and even boxers.

Now, as I remember from the film, the good people of Sheffield probably had good reason to forget they hadn’t got dressed. A nuclear bomb had just dropped on the city, so you can imagine the niceties of everyday society may have been put on hold momentarily.

I was heartened last week to hear that one Headmistress had decided enough was enough, and fired off a letter to parents on the matter. That she had to do that at all is nothing short of appalling. Letters home to parents, as I remember, used to cover a raft of subjects, the date of the next Summer Fayre, various appeals not to park the SUV too close the the school gates when dropping off precious Toby and Tara each morning etc.

Now this poor woman was faced with actually having to appeal to parents to get dressed before appearing at the school gate in a morning! For goodness sakes...she wasn’t asking for ball gowns or three-piece suits, just simply that parents might like to put some clothes on before leaving the house!

Have we regressed so far to the world of the caveman that we have to be reminded to put some pants on in a morning?

You even see them in town during the middle of the day. It’s a long time since we got dressed up to go into town, but at least we got dressed!

As the fabulous Miss Muschamp at Westcliff so astutely observed back in the day. “It’s common, Andrew..., and there’s no coming back from common”