AS THE old saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. No where is this more apparent than at the cinema and on our TV screens at the moment.

While we get the odd splash of originality, TV and film writers seem to have cottoned onto the idea that they can bring back something that was popular years ago and feast off the nostalgia.

While a few years ago we went through the point where every other film was some form of prequel or origin story, because apparently what the world really needed was to see James Bond get handed his licence to kill, now it seems we’re in the age of the revival.

At the cinema we’re about the get another Jurassic Park film, 14 years since the last – fairly awful – instalment.

And of course Star Wars is back – again – later this year.

Meanwhile on television we’ve just been subjected to a sexed-up rehash of Poldark while 90s favourites The X-Files and Twin Peaks are both on their way back – complete with the original actors and writers.

While this isn’t an entirely new trend – Arthur Conan Doyle famously resurrected Sherlock Holmes eight years after killing him off – it does seem to have become increasingly prevalent.

While part of me thinks there probably is scope to see what Mulder and Scully are up to in the age of smartphones and Twitter, I’d much rather have some new original ideas.

Even Sherlock, while a fairly interesting take on Holmes and Watson, is essentially a rehash of a 100-year-old idea.

Unfortunately this, along with the unending parade of misery in our favourite soaps, leaves little space for something original.

Of course every now and then we get something genuinely exciting like True Detective or Broadchurch – the first season anyway – but these seem to be few and far between.

There is interesting material out there but finding it can be difficult. Thank goodness for Netflix.

Sadly, from a business perspective it all makes perfect sense – why risk splashing the cash on something new when a rehash is much more likely to get results. The only answer is for more viewers to take a risk on something new.

But they won’t.