From The Sopranos to Twin Peaks: the best TV isn’t timeless – it’s prescient

The popularity of classic shows in the past year is about more than nostalgia - what pulls us back in is their relevance to today

At least Covid struck during the age of peak TV". After all, were this not a time when the shows being piped into our living rooms were better, smarter, starrier, more plentiful and more readily available than ever before, what would we have done to stay on an even keen through a year in lockdown?

Pretty much what we did anyway, it turns out. Because the viewing trend of the past 12 months, which few saw coming, has been a clamour for the classics. At a time when there is more box-fresh prestige entertainment than you can shake a battered remote at, viewers on both sides of the Atlantic decided instead to reacquaint themselves with old friends: Rodney Trotter, Jerry Seinfeld and, overwhelmingly, Tony Soprano.