Return of the King

All hail Bake Off! The most popular show on TV is back for seventh season.

Season seven of The Great British Bake Off will not top season six. Nadiya Hussain’s emotional win felt like a watershed moment in British television. Moments like this (Star Trek’s interracial kiss; Den leaving Angie ; Julian Clary’s infamous, and now rather tame, joke about Norman Lamont) occur perhaps once a decade.

Horror of Horrors?

With the publication of the government’s childhood obesity strategy, one of the worst songs committed to film has resurfaced on social media. But is all as it seems?

In March 2015, celebrity do-gooder Jamie Oliver launched his worthy Food Revolution Day petition with the goal of ensuring compulsory food education for children across the globe. Whilst it is difficult to prove a causal link, he signed off with the phrase ‘Big love’ and alas, the petition fell over a million signatories short of its goal.

Four Years On

Oh England, my England. Remember when you were the coolest country on Earth?

I am not a flag waver, and have grown to feel sympathy with EM Forster’s views on patriotism. One evening in late July 2012, however, I was firmly convinced that Britain was the greatest country in the world.

Engines of the World Unite!

Children’s television matters. Fortunately, the Daily Mail does not commission it.

There is little sport in blogging about The Daily Mail’s comment board; bashing the atavistic trolls who lurk there is just too easy. Unilad’s recent post on the Daily Haters assault on Thomas & Friends: The Great Race destroys them, but in doing so completely underestimates children’s television.

Close to the Line

 Britain’s answer to The Wire, Line of Duty has made me re-evaluate how TV should be made.

Jed Mercurio’s thrilling cop drama came to its much hyped conclusion last Thursday. It did not disappoint. The antidote to ‘case of the week’ crime dramas, Line of Duty finally resolved the three season, four year long story line of the corrupt officer known as the Caddy that has dominated the show. It was taxing, complex and thoroughly rewarding.

On borders and what is beyond them

Take one cop show. Add xenophobia. Serve.

Case-of-the-week cop shows are ubiquitous on the late-teens to early-thirties Sky channels that run nothing but American imports. The formula, in which a team of “unique geniuses” solve simplistic but brutal cases in a neat, one hour package, is as tired as old boots. NCIS and the like are a sort of Heartbeat for millenials: predictable and forgettable but enjoyable enough in very small doses.

Remembering Leia

The meninist reaction to the Rogue One trailer is obviously pathetic, but is it consistent with being a Star Wars fan?

The correct reaction to the Rogue One trailer was surely ‘AT-ATs!’ or ‘A Grand Admiral!’. Even if you don’t share my fondness for the Imperial military, we can agree it clearly wasn’t this.