Whilst the vast majority of the early videos were shorts, spoofing the same downtime TV of old as I’d stumbled upon in the first place, I soon grew confident enough to begin a series coming from the same place: Cumberland Television. I created an entire imaginary ITV franchise-holder from the vintage regional era, encompassing all the parochial cheapness characteristic of the smaller stations. The local news/magazine show ‘Cumberland at Six’ was perhaps the highlight of the Cumberland series, and a handful of those remain available to watch on YT.

The shorts have always been popular and tend to be one-offs, whereas longer videos have often formed part of a series. The Cumberland saga was followed by ‘Exposure’, which satirised the Operation Yewtree hysteria; then there was the evergreen profanity of ‘Buggernation Street’, easily the most popular of the lot (more on that elsewhere); and there were the weekly ‘25 Hour News’ headlines, a five-minute dip into a rolling news channel that boasted one more hour than the competition.

Skewered nostalgia of a kind similar to the ‘Scarfolk’ brand has been the bread & butter of most short videos, especially those that parody continuity, ads, trailers, and TOTP chart rundowns appealing to viewers of a certain age; however, the same factors have also informed extended stand-alone spoofs with no satirical bent. Satire tends to be saved for those that operate in a contemporary context.

The risk with videos parodying the present is that they’ll date with the story they’re spoofing and risk rapid irrelevance - unlike ones with both feet firmly in a past that already possesses a surreal timelessness. Sometimes, I’m able to contrast past and present, such as placing the ‘Trumptonshire’ characters or the cast of ‘Peanuts’ in the here and now, and those two in particular are amongst the small select batch I’m most proud of - unlike a few videos which have proven popular that I’m less proud of, ones I would’ve deleted long ago if they didn’t keep pulling in the punters.

Anyone producing videos for YT will have noticed the goalposts being moved a little from the mid-2010s onwards; copyright strikes became more frequent, the possibility a video could be ‘blocked in certain countries’ became more commonplace, and new terms such as ‘age restricted’ and ‘not advertiser friendly’ began to creep into the lexicon familiar to regular uploaders. Fan posts of pop promos vanished, to be replaced by the official ‘Vevo’ video; Google and its affiliated conglomerates had belatedly woken-up to the potential of YouTube and those who had helped make it what it was were being run out of town.

The sudden demonetising of firstly individual videos and then entire channels for supposedly contradicting the new guidelines deprived many of a modest income; the threat that a new video might be instantly banned after days of putting all the hard work in somewhat soured the appetite for producing them.

I jumped ship in the summer of 2019 after more than six months of video inaction; I’d had enough and began uploading any new content to the relatively obscure Vimeo. I’ve often said it was like relocating from BBC1 to ITV3, but Vimeo has proven to be a useful second home to old videos YT banned, such as several ‘Buggernation Street’ episodes that would otherwise be permanently unavailable. Had not a sudden, unexpected and inexplicable surge of interest in my YT channel (courtesy of Covid house-arrest) prompted me out of retirement in early 2021, I’d probably have stayed away for good.

Ironically, the persecution of YT creators by the YT overlords backfired in the sense that a fraternal feeling began to develop between the creators; I myself produced two successive title sequences for the ‘Triggernometry’ live stream on YT, done merely as a fan recognising kindred spirits, and designed them in the retro style that had become my trademark (rehashing the old ‘Parkinson’ theme). I also found my new overnight audience demanded fresh content, especially as many appeared to regard me as some sort of soothsayer; videos I’d produced in 2016-17-18 exaggerating the increasingly ludicrous extremities of Identity Politics had now become reality, making their discovery by a brand new audience an act of delicious serendipity. Their initial uploading came when the public hadn’t entirely latched on to what was happening; now they belatedly have, they’ve had enough of being told what they can and can’t laugh at.

I felt a little like the singer in a band who’d released a couple of flop albums to universal apathy and then split up long before one of their old tracks is used in an ad or a movie or sampled years later, suddenly sparking interest in something the artist had all-but forgotten about. The thought that I’d accidentally managed to entertain the lockdown-fatigued nation like some digital Gracie Fields was a pleasant surprise I hadn’t seen coming at all.

And amidst all the praise, all of which caught me completely unawares and made me feel indescribably pleased, perhaps the one comment that genuinely touched me and persuaded me I wasn’t merely indulging in a futile high-school reunion by returning to the fray came in response to a short video indicating new ‘Buggernation Street’ was imminent. Viewer Sarah Sea wrote…

‘My best mate Billy was a huge Buggernation Street fan. We used to quote lines at it from each other and piss ourselves laughing cos no other f***er knew what we were on about. He died two years ago today, and I’m not superstitious but I do think it feels kinda fitting that you’re announcing a comeback on this day. I’m sure Billy would f***ing love the new stuff. Thanks for the memories.’

How could I not make the effort after the clearest indication yet that some silly little videos made by me had made such a positive difference to someone’s life? I know how much certain comedy ensembles and sitcoms had meant to me personally over the years and how favourite lines were routinely quoted between myself and friends who shared my sense of humour. These things help solidify friendships and make the source material sacred text. Something I did provided someone with that? How humbling that is. Therefore, I had no excuses not to at least try and keep up the good work. I’d evidently gone from a slow-burning, best-kept-secret cult to an overnight success. And all it took was ten years.