I'm looking back to when renting a video was a Saturday night favourite in South Tyneside in the 1980s
The South Tyneside era of renting videos on a Saturday night
They were the days when renting a video was a cheap alternative to a night at the movies.
The mid-1980s were a changing time for many people and it was no different in South Tyneside where the rise of the video rental store was gathering pace.
One of the popular choices was Discount Videos which had branches in Highfield Road, New Green Street and Western Approach and it wasn’t just videos which you could rent there.
You could also rent games to play on your computer and it didn’t matter if it was the Spectrum, Commodore 64 or any other machine. They had something for everyone. You could even buy joysticks for your consoles.
Some of you might still have opted for the cinema but audiences were declining in the mid-1980s in the midst of the emergence of the video recorder and the home entertainment possibilities it brought with it.
At the Savoy, in Ocean Road, South Shields, an old favourite was still bringing in the audiences, 1967’s The Jungle Book being a big attraction.
It was being screened alongside contemporary hits including the Sylvester Stallone film First Blood.
Have a look at this view of the EB Videos shop in Laygate where Death Wish 3 was among the latest offerings in 1986.
And here is a reminder from 1982 where Michael Oughton from Jarrow was trying out computers at the North Eastern Co-op.
But videos were not the only form of entertainment you loved in the 1980s.
On TV, Cagney and Lacey was one of the latest hits. It broke new ground in pairing together two female detectives for the first time, and it was on straight after That’s Family Life starring Esther Rantzen and her team.
A three-course meal at The Sea Hotel in South Shields would set you back £2.40 in 1985. Or you could get one-course favourites such as Lancashire hot pot, steak and kidney pie, spaghetti bolognaise or curried beef and rice for 95 pence a dish.
Tell us about your video rental memories from back in the day by emailing [email protected]