Exciting times for those of us who came of age in the 90s: so many seminal figures are either returning to the spotlight (New Kids on the Block, Take That) or have proven to have improbable staying power (Andie MacDowell, Oasis). But sometimes, seeing a figure from days of yore makes you realise how much time has moved on, like watching a film that seemed the height of sci-fi realism when you were seven, and noticing the strings and the puppeteer’s fleshy hand.

And so it goes with probably the greatest TV legacy of the 90s, Beverly Hills, 90210, the TV show that proved that even ridiculously beautiful, nauseatingly rich teenagers have problems (albeit rather dramatic ones), too. This has returned to TV this week (Mondays, E4) – not, sadly, the original series, which ran from 1990-2000, but a new version with a fresh cast and identical character types, down to the family from out of town, the jocks, the sluts and, oh happy days, Nat from the Peach Pit.

But there is one definite change, and it is only apparent if you watch the old and new episodes side by side. My God, look how much thinner everyone is now!

Sure, the new cast, particularly the girls, looked very slim when I saw them at first, but no slimmer than, say, the girls from Gossip Girl or The OC. But they look downright skeletal when juxtaposed against scenes from the original series. Or, to put it another way, the girls from the original series look, if not exactly fat, then almost chunky in comparison.

This, of course, is ridiculous. The idea that anyone could look at a picture of actors Shannen Doherty or Jennie Garth in their 90s heyday and see anything other than youthful slenderness is insane. But the way our standards of what qualifies as slim on screen have altered in the past decade is insane. If one of the actors from the new version had turned up on the original, she would have been cast as someone suffering a terrible skin-eating disease (not an improbable plot twist in the old show). Now, she’s the hottest girl in high school. And your parents said this show taught you nothing about real life.

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