Book review: armchair nation: an intimate history of Britain in front of the TV

Armchair Nation aims to reveal the fascinating, lyrical and sometimes surprising history of television, from the first demonstration by John Logie Baird in Selfridges, to the fear and excitement that greeted its arrival in households, the controversies of Mary Whitehouse’s ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign, and what JG Ballard thought about Channel 4′s Big Brother. We are offered many insights into British post-war society and our relationship with media today, writes Fiona Chesterton.