Hectic schedules in my study punctuated by regular calls to pop out and see how Norfolk is getting on leave me little time to loll in an armchair and soak up what passes for popular culture.

I was astounded recently to discover PC George Dixon no longer pounds his Dock Green beat, and Val Doonican has run out of pullovers. I’ll probably be told next the Six-Five Special fell foul of Beeching’s axe, Captain Pugwash has sunk without trace , Billy Bunter’s on a diet and This Is Your Life is dead.

A close friend blessed with a bit more time to keep abreast of important trends assures me there’s much to admire in current television offerings not least in the dazzling spotlight on one of Norfolk’s “forgotten” villages, Strickley-cum- Darning.

Older  readers will recall how this tiny parish, a couple of miles inland from Bronickle End and not far from the Hodmedods, Great and Small, earned national recognition of a worthy sort during darker days of  the Second World War.

This community of about thirty souls, all graced with a passion for self-sufficiency, penny whistles  and proper Norfolk dumplings , inspired our government to launch their famous Make Do and Mend pamphlet to provide householders with useful tips on how to be both frugal and stylish in a time of severe shortages and harsh rationing.

The Ministry of Information urged hard-pressed folk to create  pretty attractive patches to cover holes in worn garments, to unpick old jumpers and re-knit cosy alternatives to turn men’s clothes into women’s and protect against the moth menace.

An updated version of Make Do and Mend was released  to counter worst effects of our latest economic depression, still lingering and hurting in many places. Some fiscal  experts from Gressenhall to Greece say the pamphlet ought to be kept in wider circulation throughout rest of the 21st century.

Strickley-cum- Darning, of course, faded into terminal decline with the end of rationing and subsequent arrival of comparative affluence towards the late 1950s.

This led inevitably to rich people pretending to be poor by securing entire wardrobes from Oxfam shops, smoking pot and organising hippy festival behind Farmer Sutra’s barn.

The small area was declared an SSSI (Site of Special Social Interest) and in its turn has opened the way to formation of several New Life for Old Woollies groups in and around Stratton St Michael and a Dig for Victory revival in  Spooner Row.

There have been other sad examples of small Norfolk communities paying the ultimate price for refusing to “move with the times.” Little Troshing, also incorporating the decayed parishes of Barleysele and Bindertwine,  wanted no truck with campaigns to attract more tourists to quiet areas.

Such bravery cost them dearly.

A packed public meeting in 1964 overwhelmingly agreed “to continue to implement the twin-track approach  which has served this precious pocket of Olde England so admirably since the war”.

Any doubts about what that meant were dispelled with triumphant cries of: “If they find the way in, show ‘ em the way out!.”

After a secret visit by a leading member of the Rural Development Commission, Little Troshing was absorbed into  the nearby parish of Upper Muckwash, now, ironically, hailed  as “a perfect example of an unspoilt Norfolk village allowed to grow organically in the shadow of an ancient church and tree-lined lanes” (Tarquin Gulliver, Rural Romps, 2013).

Perhaps this renewed interest in Strickley-cum-Darning on prime-time telly can lead to proper culture with a reminder to the Arts Council how many famous authors produced good Norfolk versions of some of  their best-known works for legendary mobile library services between Fakenham and Little Snoring,  Reepham and Kerdiston plus Thetford and Great Snarehill.

Let’s turn up the volume for Graham Greene’s Wighton Rock, Leo Tolstoy’s Warham and Peace, EM Forster’s A Passage to Ingham, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Rougham, Charles Dickens’ Pickenham Papers, Raymond Chandler’s Cheerio My Bewty and George Orwell’s Downham and Outwell In Paston and Loddon.

The BBC drama department  could score heavily with Pay Rise to  Billingford, Weeting for Godot, Scole for Scandal, Heydon Fever, Chicken Soup with Barney, Fransham without Tears and All’s Well that Beachamwell.

We must take full advantage when a general election campaign really warms up  to make it abundantly clear we will not tolerate taxation without proper representation in the national media.

There must be scope for an overdue Norfolkisation programme, especially when it comes to a dash more imagination from television programme makers.

It’s high time Casualty tuned into Suffin’ Gorn About and a few of those probing productions realised  older people do tune in before the watershed. Bring on Bedpanorama, Snoozenight, Hunt the Spectacles and You’ve Been Zimmerframed ,

I also fancy the idea of a weekly visit to Duntroshin, a clifftop retirement home, called  Only Shawls and Corsets, starring a rustic Del Boy and his trouble-making chums.

PS: Aunt Agatha, she say: “There orter  be a new gardenin’  programme  from a Norfolk allotment called The Boy John Lettuce.

(A neat play on words from the old girl whose postscripts full of homely wisdom adorned most of the eagerly-awaited  Boy John Letters published in the EDP between 1946 and 1958.Coated in broad Norfolk dialect, they were the inspired creations of comedian and garage proprietor Sidney Grapes of Potter Heigham.)