Old Friends Are The Best

As Friends turns 25, and Sex And The City creator Candace Bushnell publishes a new tale of fiftysomething women, Marisa Bate looks back on the enduring appeal of these cult shows and why new generations continue to fall in love with them

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Here’s something to make you feel old: this year, Friends turns 25 and Carrie Bradshaw is 60. Well, sort of. Candace Bushnell, her creator and the closest thing to the real Carrie, is 60 and this month publishes Is There Still Sex In The City?, the story of a (different) group of friends in New York in their 50s and 60s, navigating modern dating. This summer also sees FriendsFest return to various locations in the UK. And recently, Jennifer Aniston sent the internet wild hinting that a reunion was possible. On that note – brace yourself – Rachel Green is 50.

In many ways, these characters, who we know by their first names because they are as famous as Madonna and Oprah, and whose storylines became our own personal manuals for dating, dressing and daring to be bolder, are ageless, generation-defying and timeless. People who weren’t even born when Friends was on TV know every episode.