For readers under the age of 30, Teletext will be a foreign concept. A window into a clunky proto-internet, the TV-based interface allowed viewers to look up data such as the weather, news headlines and sports scores from the comfort of their living rooms. Designed for unused frequencies on the broadcast spectrum, Teletext was a frivolous add-on – something most people didn’t use seriously. But for my dad, it became the portal to our holiday from hell.
When they were growing up, my parents could never afford to travel outside the UK and when they had children and enough money, they vowed to show us the world. That meant, when my mum and my older brother were involved in the planning, a trip around India or to a scorching Greek island. But in 2001 – for reasons lost to time – my dad took the reins of the annual family trip. I can only imagine he was flicking past TV channels when he decided to check the weather on Teletext and came across an advert from the travel agent Thomas Cook for a surprisingly affordable Caribbean cruise. He called the number on screen and paid the deposit right away.
