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People mortified as familiar item dating back less than 20 years spotted in museum

Museums across the UK are full of items dating back hundreds of years, so it might be a surprise to spot something which many of us had in our living rooms what seems like very recently indeed

[LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: Members of the public walk around the Science Museum on it's official re-opening day on August 19, 2020 in London, England. The Science Museum reopens its doors to the public today, nearly five months after the Coronavirus pandemic shut down all public spaces. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)]

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The Science Museum in London attracted more than 2.8 million visitors in 2025 (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)

Museums can offer a fascinating look back at how we used to live in years past, and even at how life on Earth was before humans came onto the scene. Whether you're interested in the 20th century history, the rapid developments of the industrial revolution, the days of the Roman Empire, or even further back than that, the UK is filled with museums with fascinating artefacts and displays.

The human race has existed for around 300,000 years, while the Earth has been here for about four billion, so it's no surprise museums up and down the country - many of them free to visit - are filled with hidden treasures waiting to be discovered. Something as simple as a fragment of bone from a Iron Age burial mound, a piece of cloth dating back to the Tudor period, or a bullet casing recovered from the battlefields of France can tell a fascinating story.

But it may be understandable to be a bit taken aback to see something in a museum display that many of us had in our front rooms not that long ago. But that's just what visitors to London's Science Museum have experienced.

An account on Instagram recently posted a image of what many of us would describe as a thoroughly modern piece of kit on display at the popular museum.

The shift from analogue to digital TV began in the UK around 20 years ago, with the first digital signals broadcast in Carmarthenshire, West Wales, in 2005, and later rolled out across the whole country in the following years.

Today households up and down the UK have digital boxes sat next to their tellies, giving them access to shows from Strictly and Love Island, to live news and the latest streaming megahit. And now a Sky+ HD box which was a common sight in living rooms across the UK what seems like not long ago at all, complete with remote, is on display in London's Science Museum as part of a display telling the story of the shift from analogue to digital television.

An image of the display was posted on Instagram with the overlaid caption: "The science museum has put a 2088 Sky HD box on display like an antique." The caption of the post read: "That is one way to make me feel old...

"The Science Museum in London is now displaying a 2008 Sky+ HD box as part of its collection on Britains transition to digital television. Once the centrepiece of millions of living rooms, its now sitting behind glass alongside other pieces of broadcasting history.

"If you remember arguing over who deleted the recordings, watching live football in HD for the first time, or seeing that 10 per cent disk space remaining warning, you might be due for a museum exhibit yourself."

If 2008 doesn't seem that long ago to you - remember, a child born that year will be old enough to vote, drink, and get a tattoo this year. And people in the comments of the Instagram post were in tears, with one saying: "Guess I'm an antique too."

Another said: "Literally watching TV on mine rn (right now)." And someone else said: "My neighbour was using his until a few weeks ago!"

A different person wrote: "Our childhood is now history. I remember seeing in the museum last year when I went and I was shocked." And another simply said: "Im so old."

A different person joked: "Do they not remain the property of Sky? They will be round to claim it back shortly!"

The display also features the explanation: "From lab to living room. In the four decades before the UK's shift to digital television and enormous amount of research went into developing digital television signals and different ways of transmitting them. One important aspect of the research was agreeing to a set of rules, or standards, so that different devices across the world would all work together."

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