WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
Join "amateur" historians Andrew and Liam (thrice bronze medalists in 'The South Yorkshire Rememberers Chalice') as they travel back in time like Nicholas Lyndhurst in Goodnight Sweetheart and try to remember things from the past.
Do you remember Woolworths? Do you remember when Marathons changed their name to Snickers? Do you remember Del Boy falling through the bar? If so then come and remember with us. If not then stick around and we will probably remember it for you. You literally can't lose so why not hit the play button as hard as Paul Sykes hit that shark?
WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
Who Remembers........Candy-Striped Bedsheets (Bonus Episode)
The humble candy-striped bedsheet wouldn't seem like a topic worthy of heated debate, but when Phil Ridley of Four Blades podcast tagged us in a nostalgic Twitter post about these distinctly 80s home textiles, it sparked something unexpectedly divisive. One simple question—"who remembers these thin, multi-coloured striped bedsheets?"—revealed a fascinating split in our collective memory.
What makes this conversation so compelling is the stark contrast between those who instantly recognise these sheets as an essential part of British childhood and those who have absolutely no recollection of them whatsoever. Our hosts perfectly embody this divide—one passionately insisting these sheets were everywhere in the 80s, the other genuinely bewildered by the suggestion they were commonplace. "I massively remember this and you don't," becomes the refrain that drives this impromptu bonus episode.
The Twitter responses we explore reveal fascinating patterns. Some listeners recall these sheets specifically in caravans and holiday parks, others remember them as winter bedding designed for frosty bedrooms, while many insist they were standard in every home before duvets became widespread. The conversation drifts into related nostalgic territory—the disappearance of traditional deck chairs from British beaches, the evolution of bedding from sheets to duvets, and the peculiar ways memory attaches itself to certain objects while completely overlooking others. Whether you vividly remember these striped sheets or find yourself scratching your head, this episode captures something universal about how differently we experience and remember shared cultural touchpoints.
Join the debate yourself by letting us know if these candy-striped sheets were part of your childhood or completely absent from your memory. Connect with us at whorememberspod@outlook.com or find us on Twitter @whorememberspod and share your own nostalgic bedding memories!
Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of who Remembers, the UK Nostalgia Podcast. And this week, or on today's episode at least, we are asking who Remembers? Stripe your Bedsheets, the very first draw in Britain's new national lottery. Sinclair, believe their. C5, britain's first mass-produced electrical car is something called the internet. Stop shacking. Thanks, stu, but none of the locals got puddling. Yeah, that's for me. No bottle is good, I can't speak. You can't win anything with kids. Heck, no One of the superstar video games in the business.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's threatened to overrule me One?
Speaker 1:of the superstar video games in the business. Did you threaten to overrule me Before we became a fool again?
Speaker 2:Remember when it's the lowest form of conversation. Yeah, so specifically, this is vintage candy-striped bed sheet as suggested by Phil Ridley, one of the legendary Four Blades fame.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brilliant podcast. Get listening to it, especially if you're a United fan, you can still find it.
Speaker 2:I mean I do record a couple of times a year, don't I?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do, yeah. So the reason we've jumped on here with this is because he tagged us and he said that having a random debate with Rachel Ridders which is his other half, hands up, if you can remember having sheets like this in the 80s and what he's done is posted a picture of stripy bed sheets and if you don't know what I mean by stripy bed sheets, then you're probably not going to get anything out of this, Because as soon as he posted it, I thought I know exactly what he's on about here. This was pure 80s, these bed sheets that were all thin stripes, multicoloured stripes, really thin sheets. But you talking privately, I haven't got a fucking clue what he's talking about.
Speaker 2:No, I think people are starting to kind of get the irony of the who remembers the two expert rememberers. We often don't remember things. I'd love to sort of say it kind of feels like oh, we're not part of. It isn't early 90s, if you don't remember? I don't remember the candy stripe bedsheets, I'm afraid I can't believe you don't remember.
Speaker 1:I can't believe you don't remember these.
Speaker 2:Remember the cheap sort of plasticky, thin, pastel, pastel, is it. Colors like the, yeah, but I don't specifically. Unfortunately remember the, the candy stripes bed sheet, I don't recall. I'm trying to think of like what we would have had. We would have had sort of like he-man or thundercats bed sheets me and my brother for me yeah he-man, uh still got it my mom and dad had some play sheets, my sort of.
Speaker 2:My grandmother lived near to us. I had sort of really nice feeling, sort of quite expensive feeling bed sheets, and my Irish family in Corby. They had like tons of sheets actually. So you'd get like a sort of duvet, then a sheet, then a top sheet and then a thick sheet. You'd have to sort of fold them all down to kind of make it sleepable in.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my mum earlier and I showed her this picture that Phil shared and we have retweeted it so you know what we're talking about. She said oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, massively remember them. She didn't like duvets when they first came out, they were too big for her because she was just used to these thin, like I say, stripy bed sheets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that sheet must have gone over a duvet. That's not just a sheet, is it? Or is it just a sheet?
Speaker 1:No, no, I think that's what covered you up. This is why I'm surprised that you don't remember it.
Speaker 2:Obviously, your other half's dad has got a caravan in it does make yeah, it does make me think of caravan bedding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it reminds me a lot of like those sort of early holidays where you like go into like a a little room and you've got these little sheets that are fucking freezing like a complete waste. But, in fairness to you, as phil says, um, his other half, rachel, did not. She don't remember him. She don't remember him at all. She thinks he's mad for thinking that like this is a massive thing. And I think this is where where we both are, because I massively remember this and you don't yeah, no, I'm not gonna pretend to.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna, for remembering points, pretend to I. Unfortunately I don't. I kind of I sort of feel the vibe. I remember the vibe of cheap bed sheets, but no, not the candy stripe ones. But what we said is because obviously you know we get a few comments, but that on its own got a few comments, so we decided to turn it into a little standalone bonus episode, I think. Are you going to go through some of the back and forth on the post?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he got loads of. I won't say it's gone viral. I reckon he's gone viral with like a certain section of people in Sheffield.
Speaker 2:He's gone viral with 3,500 people who've seen it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean there's a lot of like people talking about it and I'll get on to. We are going to record straight after this, as a separate episode, the list of comments episode. But I'm going to start with what Stephen Hall said, which obviously Phil tagged us in it and thanks for that, phil, so obviously we've got an episode out of it. And he said I'm sorry, but your name needs changing. I always see Hall members Spacey makes all the difference. So I said totally deliberate, and he's put back since. Yeah, I've just been listening back very good, so genuinely thanks for that, stephen. But so many fucking comments as we'll get on to in the listeners episode we did own that, by the way, didn't we?
Speaker 2:we did decide early on that, yeah, it does read as whole members. We're not going to change it. Initially we didn't realise when we said who remembers it? I don't know if the next day, or whatever it was, one of us said actually that reads as whole members, yeah. But we sort of thought, oh, we'll just go with it.
Speaker 1:We'll go with it.
Speaker 2:This is how we are. We roll with the punches, we take the rough with the smooth, so yeah, Open for perverts to get on board if possible. Yeah, forget a couple of perverts. Everyone's equal by accident.
Speaker 1:This? This is a broad church, isn't it? Perverts, you know. Woke all welcome Woke, non-woke Nazis.
Speaker 2:you know, they're all welcome in our tent it still counts as a listen, doesn't it? We don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah if you download it, we don't mind. Smash that like button.
Speaker 2:Whatever your tendencies are, just keep smashing the like button.
Speaker 1:The reason I want to go through the comments? Because you said you didn't remember them and I'd like you to sort of not necessarily answer every comment. But if anything rings a bell for you. So, Clareport, surely everyone from our era had some of these knocking about.
Speaker 2:Well, if you did, then yeah, if you didn't, then that was like did you really think like literally every person had these things? Like maybe you had them, maybe your friend had them? I don't think literally every person would have had this. I don't think, well, well I'm proof that they didn't, because I didn't have them.
Speaker 1:but carl, carl, absolutely, this is my sort of feeling on it. He said I always remember bedding like this. I don't think, well, I'm proof that they didn't because I didn't have them. But Carl, carl, absolutely, this is my sort of feeling on it. He said I always remember bedding like this on holidays, car parks, caravans, car parks sorry, holiday parks and caravans. When he was younger and this is where I've I think my nan had this in a spare room, this bed sheet of, like you said, the candy-coloured thin stripes, of, like you said, the candy-coloured thin tribes.
Speaker 2:But it reminds me more of going to Bridlington or places like that. Yeah, I do see We've stayed at Whitby a few times. I can picture it in a caravan. So it's not impossible that I have seen that pattern in a caravan. But what I can't do is hand on heart say, yeah, absolutely, I've slept in a bed with that pattern on it.
Speaker 1:So Walls and Mike said like Walls said a classic through my childhood, and Mike said 100%, I had these when I was a kid. Cappie said no, so he's on your side, but it does remind him of deck chairs. He said do they still make deck chairs in the shitty, stripy way that they used to do in the 80s? I think that's an amazing topic for discussion.
Speaker 2:That's a good point actually Do you still find deck chairs? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Have you ever? When was the last time you sat in a proper deck?
Speaker 2:chair. You don't do that. You get sun lounges now. You don't get deck chairs. Yeah, you don't get deck chairs.
Speaker 1:I ain't sat in a deck chair for a. I remember when, whatever it was, and it was like a massive thick blue stripe down the middle and then we saw a deck chair. I remember everyone calling them deck chair Wednesday. You don't mean anything now, I imagine, to anyone under 40 deck chairs.
Speaker 2:I've only just ever thought that deck chairs are to do with being on deck like they must have been on ships. I've never thought about it like that. Nothing gets past you.
Speaker 1:Karina said I'll not pronounce this right, but flannelette sheets. Ever thought about it like that live, live, nothing gets past you, uh. Karina said um, I want to get this. I'll not pronounce this right, but flannelette sheets for winter in the 70s. So you're saying it's for, like, you know people, but this is for winter.
Speaker 2:She's saying yeah, again I, because I don't remember him. I can't. I don't know. It's just like the thicker duvet comes out. But you're saying it's a sheet, not a duvet cover. So I don't know. It's not a duvet cover as far as I remember.
Speaker 1:Anyway, jane, obviously Jane backs up the last comment saying that these were winter sheets. They weren't cotton, so they were warming when your bedroom window, so a lot of frost in this inside, so they weren't cotton sheets. I wonder what they were then. Polyester, god it's just. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like a, it's like a time travel show, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, tom said he still thinks he has a couple of these in pillow covers, massive like on pillow covers. He surely remembers the pillow covers of this like design.
Speaker 2:No, because I'm not Imagine if I said I can't remember how to bed sheets, and then you said pillows and I went oh, of course.
Speaker 1:You must remember you never had like thin striped pillow covers, yeah, but not to that pattern.
Speaker 2:I've had stripy pillows. Where the fuck have you been growing?
Speaker 1:up. This is mad Steel City. Martians said these were staple bedding in the 80s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in people who had it's house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely accept that, not everyone owned this is what I'm saying, bulma, though this is like sort of yeah, it backs you up here. Bulma says 60s, 70s, yes, but we moved on to quilts by the 80s.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I was born in 82, so I'm going with Bulma.
Speaker 1:You're the quilt era, we're both the quilt era, but, like I say, it's more like the I don't know like a Manan spare room. This reminds me of this sort of.
Speaker 2:I think you're all over the shop. It's a sheet, it's a duvet cover, it's a quilt, whatever it is. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what it felt like. You just get in bed, don't you, when you're younger, now uses decorating sheets, according to Claire well, yeah, but again.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, but again. It'd be mind if I said ah, yeah, of course I've got them as decorating sheets, but I never had them as bedding. If you had them as bedding, then they will now be decorating sheets, but I didn't have this as bedding, and even if I did, that would be at my mum's house anyway, I wouldn't have it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you know I don't mean so angry about it just because you didn't have these sheets. I know you're like a professional. Yeah, I remember it honestly. Brett said in the 80s my nan had these in a caravan up to her passing two years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which again, I completely go with that. I can absolutely see it in a caravan. I don't have a memory or a photo to back it up. But it wouldn't amaze me if, if somebody dug out a photo, said when you stayed in a caravan when you were seven years old, that was the bedding, I would say, ah, yeah, I just. I just couldn't say that I remembered it because I don't physically remember it and I'm not I love like you sound genuinely annoyed when you're talking about this.
Speaker 1:it's like I'm genuinely laughing like that you're like about this it's like I'm genuinely laughing, like that you're like no, no, I don't remember it alright, like these people aren't talking to you personally.
Speaker 2:Look, in a way they've responded to a podcast by two guys, so at least like half they are Well NotSplay, said everyone.
Speaker 1:he knows Adam, everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he didn't know me, did he, so again crazy.
Speaker 1:S13 Blade said Jesse remembers him, like it was yesterday. Paul Wright has said whole members pod whatever floats your boat, Phil. But yeah, I do remember, so he remembers. So that's all the comments.
Speaker 2:Well, he obviously doesn't listen, does he? Because he's sort of saying he thinks it is whole members pod so he thinks Phil is listening to Hall Members Pod yeah. Well whatever, whatever floats your boat, phil.
Speaker 1:But our notification was taken up by this and I thought like a really interesting sort of it's not interesting at all, is it really? But like as a bonus episode, just to talk about these sheets that, as I saw and you're completely opposite to this as I saw them, I thought fucking hell, yeah, jesus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I don't understand this sort of if you don't remember something, you don't remember it. I don't understand.
Speaker 1:It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Do you not feel the same? No, because I don't remember it. It's amazing that I remember you don't have a memory that you don't have.
Speaker 1:It's amazing that I made you get into this particular pod episode and you're like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:I feel like you're almost saying I can't believe you don't remember these things. You've seen about 10 films, right? So if I said to you do you? Remember halfway through Mission Impossible 2 when that happened. You would say no because I hadn't seen it. Imagine me saying I can't believe you don't remember that. No, I physically haven't seen it. Imagine me saying I can't believe you don't remember that. No, I physically haven't seen it. What? But you don't remember it.
Speaker 1:All right, chill out. I don't think there's any need for a massive argument about it. I just think that, as a rememberer, I thought you might have remembered these sheets.
Speaker 2:I can't remember things I don't remember. I think it's a bit of a black mark against your name. I've got skills. I think it's a black mark against your name.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at whorememberspod, at outlookcom. If you are a right-wing fascist, you can find us on Twitter, at whorememberspod. Or if you're a Wokenor, you can find us.