"362 nights out of every 365"

TV Matthew Engel, a cricket writer and columnist on the Financial Times offers this celebration of Ceefax at the BBC News Magazine. The delivery is very poignant and I don't just mean the words:

"Firstly, it could do the basics very fast. I have four immediate needs first thing in the morning: a pee, tea, a period of reflective silence about the day ahead, and a quick reassurance that nothing has happened in the night that might change that day drastically.

"About 362 nights out of every 365 nothing does happen. But a journalist needs to be sure - the memory of the 4am death of Princess Diana is still seared into my brain."

As he rightly points out, the internet and the BBC's replacement red button service provide much the same information. But they're just not the same as a rainy afternoon in the early eighties when the only entertainment was a cup of Horlicks and "pages from Ceefax" and trying to guess which type of news will be appearing next.