Sometimes a personal idiosyncrasy has been with you so long and become so entrenched that you don't question why you do it, or even notice that you do it at all. For many years mine (well....one of mine) was that I had to keep my arms under the covers at all times when I was asleep in bed. This stayed with me for at least 20 years before I became conscious of how ridiculous and bizarre it was. Upon forcing myself to reflect on what had triggered this behaviour, to my surprise I was able to pinpoint the incident immediately. A TV programme. A family favourite US import cop show that had taken the UK by storm when I was a child. It was one specific episode of Starsky and Hutch.
Unlike other childhood traumas from the small screen I have no clear visual memories of the episode itself or even the key scene that started this whole nonsense, only a recollection of what happens: someone creeps into Starsky's bedroom in the middle of the night and injects him with poison while he's asleep. I think it's fair to say that this episode was clearly "inspired" by the plot of 1949 Edmond O'Brien film D.O.A. in that our heroes now have to race to find the motive and the culprit so they can locate a cure before it's too late. To date I haven't been able to find an upload of any clips of this episode, which boasts the no-nonsense title of A Coffin for Starsky, let alone a full upload. However someone has kindly uploaded some screen grabs of it and ... well....what can I say. It's so much worse than I ever imagined. I'm now of the opinion that I must have blanked the images from my mind and just left my brain with some clear yet subliminal messages to ensure this never, ever, happens to me. In fact, I now realise that this programme is probably the reason why I don't like sleeping with the window open either.
I'll just leave you all to enjoy the slideshow below. Sleep well, and make sure you keep the phone by the bed.
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