17 Things Every British Kid Will Remember From The '90s

Was this a fever dream? Nope. Turns out, this was a very real part of our childhood. Mr Blobby — a large, pink, yellow-spotted, alien-thing — was a regular fixture of Noel Edmond's kid's gameshow House Party, and actually went on to have a pretty successful music career.

On British school playgrounds everywhere, kids started carrying around squishy, sticky alien babies in an egg filled with slime. For a long time, '90s kids believed the gooey alien could magically duplicate if you put them in the fridge, or repeatedly threw them at the wall. It took a long time, and plenty of experiments, to find they did absolutely nothing. They were just gross.

British children's television really had a thing for making inanimate objects magical. Bernard's Watch saw a kid with an old timepiece with the ability to stop time. This was epic television. Bernard, played by David Peachey, was a wholesome kid who used his ability to manipulate time and space in order to help people instead of, well, robbing a bank like most of us would do. Looking back, it was a great lesson in power and responsibility.

Saturday morning television reached its peak during the '90s and BBC's Live & Kicking was definitely top tier entertainment. Throughout the years, it was presented by all the TV greats including Philip Schofield, Andi Peters, Sarah Greene, Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston. The glorious three-hour live show would see phone-ins, cookery segments, musical acts, and games. The show's popularity led to ITV rival SMTV, meaning Saturday's were firmly spent flicking between two channels.

Nothing made me more envious than those velvet headbands emblazoned with a person's name in gemstones. Unfortunately, with a name like L'Oréal, I couldn't partake in the trend. However, I spent much of my childhood with a head full of multi-coloured butterfly hair clips. My scalp looked like a butterfly sanctuary but I thought I was the epitome of style and sophistication.

There were a lot of styles from the '90s that just don't make sense to us today but pedal pushers were particularly unusual – especially when they came with a matching skirt. The height of cool during a primary school "own clothes day."

Bewitched — the three Irish queens in double-denim — made most '90s kids' childhood with their hit song C'est La Vie. The earworm dominated radio stations with its folksy tale of young love. All these years later, I'm still wondering about the boy "sittin' in a tree"...

Were you even a British '90s kid if you don't know the full dance routine to Tragedy?

Before Ant and Dec were, well... Ant and Dec, they were PJ and Duncan, two teenage boys who got in trouble a lot. After leaving hit show Byker Grove, they subsequently launched their short-lived rap career (yikes) before becoming the presenting duo everyone knows today. Complete with very '90s dance movies, Let's Get Ready To Rumble was an instant hit, coining the phrase: "Watch us wreck the mic... syke!"

Thanks to The Queen's Nose, every British kid during the '90s believed rubbing the Queen's head side of a 50p could grant you wishes (c'mon, you know tried). In the series, Harmony would rub her coin and find herself in various wild adventures — so yes, like Aladdin, but distinctly more British.

Sing it with me: "Have you ever, ever felt like this, have strange things happen, have you going round the twist?" I can barely remember the plot to the Australian children's TV import Round The Twist but the theme song is burned in my brain forever.

For most '90s kids, loving and obsessing over the Spice Girls is a given. You'd plaster posters on your wall, you wore the t-shirts, you had those ugly platform shoes, you watched Spiceworld on repeat and pledged allegiance to just one of the five singers. If, for example, you were "Baby Spice" then you'd have to base your entire personality on said Spice Girl, including the pigtails.

Anyone else religiously keep a diary during their childhood? I fancied myself to be an excellent diarist growing up — a la Moesha. And I felt my secrets were so scandalous I kept them under lock and key – literally. These were later digitised with a password protected "Dear Diary" device. Just recently, I busted into my old diaries (covered in glitter and pink feathers) to find absolutely nothing exciting happened in 1996.

Before the days of on-demand streaming, Blockbuster would house all your favourite VHS and DVDs to rent to watch at home. It was paradise. A trip to Blockbuster became my Friday night ritual with my Dad, who, after spending hours waiting for me to decided on which Disney movie I wanted to watch AGAIN, would spend an extortionate amount on 3 movies and Haagen Daaz ice cream. Rest in peace, Blockbuster.

On my 8th birthday, my parents took me and six of my friends to McDonald's for their supreme, deluxe birthday experience – which included me helping serve customers at the drive-thru. Honestly. And I wasn't the only one! This was during peak Ronald McDonald days, where the red-headed clown didn't seem as terrifying as he looks to me now.

While U.S. kids had Backstreet Boys, the UK and Ireland produced a stellar line-up of boybands during the '90s. Take That, Boyzone, Westlife, A1, 911, East 17 — I was pretty obsessed with all of them. Yet, personally, 5ive were my top tier boyband crushes — no arguments. Between the hairstyles with too much gel, baggy jeans, and questionable eyebrow ring, I was hooked. And boy, could they dance.

The moment he emerged out of the Caribbean sea with a glistening chiselled body for his Mysterious Girl video, Peter Andre became a national '90s treasure. I was probably too young to appreciate Andre's appeal as a kid but that song got a lot of airtime in primary school talent shows.