back to article WTC collapse voted 'most memorable TV moment'

The collapse of New York's Twin Towers has been voted the "most memorable TV moment" of the last 50 years in a poll carried out by UK digital TV outfit Freeview. The final top 10 has a decidedly Anglo-American feel, with the Moon landing, the funeral of the Sainted Lady Di, Python's Dead Parrot, and JFK's demise jostling for …

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  1. Insane Reindeer

    But I thought...

    ...That the first place to switch to digital was Ferryside in Carmarthenshire, Wales, about 18-24 months ago!

  2. M Brown
    Thumb Down

    Diana Funeral

    How the hell can anyone forget the stupid bint's funeral when its crammed down our throats near enough every day?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bob Geldof...

    ...never actually said that.

    Funny how people think he did. And it gets voted as a memorable moment.

  4. Dave
    Unhappy

    slipping editorial standards

    I was somewhat distressed that an article about TV viewers' recollections of most remembered moments is categorised as "entertainment". This distress being founded on a personal ethical notion that viewing incidents of death, destruction and violent mayhem are not entertaining. The list may be, as the author avers, somewhat predictable and this fact is also not entertaining; it is, however, informative. Perhaps the Vultures should consider introducing some further article categories: for this article I humbly propose "sociology" or "social psychology".

  5. Paul

    The outside world...

    Unless I'm missing somthing (I admit I havent looked at the paper this morning) the UK is not part of the USA, so therefor the Twin Towers and the Moon landing were news form "The outside world" as you put it.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    What about...

    What about the humping in the woods scene from The Singing Detective? It was indelibly etched in my mind as a child...

  7. Kane
    Thumb Up

    Number 8?

    Shocking! I expected it to rate much higher!

    "PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?"

    Quality stuff!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    When's the switchover then?

    "Whitehaven in Cumbria will this week become the first place to switch off its terrestrial telly signal in the run-up to the big digital switchover between 2008-12. ®"

    Do you guys want to hire a proof-reader or something?

    A) Switch off "terrestrial telly"? Don't you mean _analogue_ terrestrial telly?

    B) They're switching over to all-digital... in the "run-up" to switching to digital? What... they're going to do it again in 2008?

    Methinks the switchover from analogue to digital mayhaps begins *this year*.

  9. Lee Staniforth

    WTF

    David Brent>

    Shurely shome mishtake?

    (Or do Freeviewers actually have a sense of irony?)

  10. sean
    Thumb Up

    @ Ben

    i remember watching live aid

    i remember geldof saying "we want your fucking money"

    close enough for you?

  11. Craig McCormick

    'Entertainment'

    WRT 'slipping editorial standards', I have to admit that the bad link between the Entertainment category of El Reg and the WTC scenes did strike me as inappropriate. However I decided not to raise the point as I wouldn't want to be a picky tit.

  12. Adam Targett
    Thumb Up

    Bob Geldof cont...

    As commented by Ben here is what was actually said:

    Many now recall that Geldof said "Just give us the fucking money." However this is not true. He did say "People are dying NOW. Give us the money NOW. Give me the money now." And later when trying to impress on the BBC TV presenter the importance of his plea, "F**k the address, just give the phone, here's the number...".

    I'll put my hands up to mis-remembering the event as well.. It wasn't until i read this that i realised i was wrong

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  14. dreadful scathe
    Alert

    poor list

    paul: what part of "Anglo-American" didn't you understand ;)

    Got to say though - wheres the end of apartheid and Nelsons release ? the falklands war, gulf wars 1 and 2 ? the many IRA bombings ?....all trumped by a character in an ok sitcom doing a stupid dance...even Elvis's death and the footage of The Beatles arriving in the US surely beat that ?

  15. Lloyd
    Thumb Down

    Hurrah

    Either this is all made up or I fit none of their demographics, lets see now:

    1. Twin Towers collapse - Yeah, it was memorable.

    2. Princess Diana's funeral - No recollection whatsoever, couldn't care less.

    3. Moon landing - Wasn't even born.

    4. Fall of the Berlin Wall - Yeah, alright memorable.

    5. Bob Geldof telling Live Aid viewers to "give us your fucking money" - Never happened so hard to be memorable but I'd have gladly paid to not have to hear another ****ing thing out of Geldof rather than having to listen to a load of dross.

    6. Two Ronnies' Four Candles sketch - Comedy genius, Mr Barker at his best.

    7. David Brent's dance from The Office - Ricky Gervais is about as funny as finding out that your entire family and all of your close friends have been killed by a particularly virulent strain of STD given to them by an ex-girlfriend, so no, definitely not.

    8. Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch - Getting a bit tired now, they've done better.

    9. England's 1966 World Cup win - Wasn't alive but bloody hate football anyway.

    10. Assassination of John F Kennedy - Wasn't alive.

  16. Dean
    Stop

    Whatever happen to..

    the bar scene from only fools and horses..?

  17. Andy Hockey
    Coat

    Better than The Office...

    Watching paint dry?

  18. Gavin J. Pearce
    Stop

    Of course ...

    Of course the Twin Towers collapse is more memorable than the Berlin Wall, it only happened a few years back!!

    Surely memorability is how well you remember something, and the one remembered most will be the more recent events!

  19. Matthew Hale

    Yea those towers coming down...

    .....was just great to watch. I don't know about anyone else, but I just couldn't get enough of it. I even recorded it for posterity.

    Shame TV wasn't around to capture Belsen and Auschwitz etc, they would have looked fantastic in High Def with a 7.1 soundtrack I'm sure....

    I'll go with the bar scene from `Only Fools and Horses`.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Here is the most memorable moment of all time

    How about in 72, Game 8 with 34 seconds left, Paul Henderson scored on Vladislav Tretiak. Forever to be known as "The goal heard around the world".

    Don't you know Hockey is the greatest sport ever invented?

  21. The Other Steve
    Flame

    F*ck lady Di

    Didn't watch the daft tart's funeral, and couldn't care less, except for the fact that on the night of her death I had stayed up til some ridiculous time of night to watch software company based sitcom "Dweebs", which was subsequently cancelled so that we could be bombarded with mind numbing looped footage of the tedious sloany bitch being carted off in an ambulance.

    Two bottles of portugese pish totally wasted !

    Fucking ITV. No royals had better die when I'm watching Numb3rs, or I'm reaching for the four star and some milk bottles.

  22. Michael
    Stop

    @Paul

    "Unless I'm missing somthing (I admit I havent looked at the paper this morning) the UK is not part of the USA, so therefor the Twin Towers and the Moon landing were news form "The outside world" as you put it."

    But not JFK's assassination, apparently, but I digress.

    Do you *really* only have one sentence's worth of memory up there in your noggin? Context, buddy. Context.

    To put the two sentences together, with minor editing:

    "The final top 10 has a decidedly Anglo-American feel...The outside world (as in 'not anglo-american) is represented by just one historic event"

    Honestly...

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My most memorable moment

    For me, the most memorable TV moment was easily the closing scene of _Blackadder Goes Forth_. My first thought was "What the f*** have we just been laughing at?" My second thought was "How many £10 wraps could you make out of that many poppies?"

  24. Al Storer

    WTC collapse

    I do remember seeing it live. I'd remember it seeing it live for the rest of my days, even if it was never mentioned again.

    I was between school and uni, without a job. I saw the whole thing play out live, from just after the first radio reports. That sort of thing will never go away.

    I really wish the yanks would stop going on about it mind.

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