POLICEMEN all began looking younger than me many years ago, so I’ve come to terms with the fact I am no longer a spring chicken.

However, I am increasingly aware of the cultural gulf opening up in terms of TV shows between me and the modern 20-something generation.

I am now met with blank looks when I pepper conversations with references to small screen heroes of my youth.

Take Kung Fu – the most exciting programme of my childhood. It ran from 1972–1975 and created a sensation as it told the story of a fugitive Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the wild west.

Caine (David Carradine) was a man-of-peace, treading the land of cowboys and Indians in barefeet while playing a reed flute. But at the end of every episode he left a trail of bodies in his wake after having to use his kung fu skills to defend himself against wave-upon-wave of baddies.

“I come in peace,” he’d proclaim, before smashing up the town in slow motion. The show was famous for its flashbacks to his time in the monastery where he was called Grasshopper.

We all loved it, and it spawned a host of imitators and martial arts crazes.

So I was shocked to learn the other week that no one in our office knew of it.

I have an annoying habit of giving staff silly nicknames, and had begun calling reporter Rebecca Cain ‘Grasshopper’. She looked bewildered, so I explained: “Cain, Grasshopper, Kung Fu.”

The penny still didn’t drop for Rebecca so I asked for help around the office, but amazingly no one else recalled the show, and I suddenly began to feel ancient.

But things got worse the next week when I mentioned Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West). This was the song by comedian Benny Hill which made it to number 1 in the charts at the end of 1971.

Every person in my generation could croon this one and it was legendary.

But did they know of it in the office? What do you think?

I was telling Grasshopper Cain about a time when I sold a story to the nationals based on Ernie, Fastest Milkman in the West. Again she looked at me blankly as did all the others from her era.

A few weeks later, she bounded over to tell me she had coincidentally heard it on her friend’s tape deck, and really liked it. Her friend was from Fife in Scotland so perhaps the Scots are more culturally blessed than us, or maybe they haven’t quite caught up with the modern world yet.

But there are numerous examples of this cultural chasm, and now I can’t say anything without being gaped at. Rebecca told me her favourite show was ‘Come Dine with Me’, although I misheard and thought she was asking me to join her for lunch. I’ve never seen this, nor have I watched any modern fictional shows, except for Torchwood which is just an adult spin-off of the long-running Doctor Who series from the 1960s.

It makes me wonder what will happen in the future because my son is now of the age I was when I watched Kung Fu and listened to Ernie. Will the Rebecca Cains of 2041 ask him who Harry Potter is?

Happily there is one connection, one thread that bestrides the generations. When my son was mascot at Wycombe Wanderers this year, they asked him, for the purpose of the programme notes, what his favourite TV shows were. Match of the Day was the answer – echoing exactly what I would have said if asked in 1972.

And funnily enough our favourite team, Tottenham Hotspur, are just as irritatingly inconsistent now as they were way back then.

So while everything appears to change, it all basically stays the same, just the faces alter.

For Jimmy Hill see Gary Lineker, for Doctor Who see Doctor Who or Torchwood, for New Faces see the X Factor, for Minder see New Tricks and for Kung Fu see... er Kung Fu Panda? Anyone want to join me in starting up a Grasshopper Appreciation Society (GAS)?