Ben Elton, where are you now?

So there's to be scrutiny of the support given to guests on reality TV shows. I'm guessing once the Kyle furore dies down, not much further will be done, and the digital Colosseum will continue to trade in bread and circuses for the good and pampered citizens of Panem.

At the turn of the century, Ben Elton penned 2 novels about reality TV and public media consumption, both squirmingly close to the bone, and both relevant to the current public outcry. (Funny that last week nobody had a problem with Kyle). Dead Famous is a parody of Big Brother, but core to the plot is the production team engineering a murder in order to push ratings. Popcorn is even more brutal: 2 vigilantes set up a live TV feed into the house of the man they've taken hostage, along with a monitor which shows them how many people are watching. They tell the viewers: switch off, and we'll spare his life, if you don't switch off, we'll shoot him. The viewers don't switch off.

The likes of Kyle, Big Brother, Love Island, all happen because we provide it with an audience. Maybe it suits us to count ourselves as passive consumers of TV, but in the digital world, everyone knows who's watching, what, and for how long. Every viewing minute is a vote in favour of the programme I'm watching.

Fifi and the Flower Tots Replacing Question Time

Really looking forward to the BBC's replacement to Question Time, bringing together the old political Q&A format with the childrens cartoon series Fifi and the Flower Tots

Every week the following roles will be taken by a leading politician or journalist:
Stingo, the scheming and manipulative wasp
Slugsy, Stingos slow-witted accomplice
Primrose, the prim and proper guardian of good manners and decorum
Violet, the creative free spirit
Bumble, the accident prone bumble bee

For week 1, these parts are played by Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Anna Soubry and Jeremy Corbyn. All presided over the the kind and gracious Fifi Bruce, who sees the good in everyone

Brexit TV Scheduling - New Additions

In a vain attempt to keep up with events, TV companies have announced yet more  new programming for late December

Deal or No Deal: Teresa May searches 22 identical red boxes for something that she can sell to her MPs. Every now and again the Junker rings up and offers her nothing.

The Half-Baked British Break Off: hosted from a small second hand gazebo by Barely Merry

Sounds of the 70s At last UKIP finds a decade which resonates with its values. Featuring old classics such as Making Plans for Nigel, Here's to You Tommy Robinson, and a remix of Money, Money, Money featuring Aaron Banks.

DIY SAS under cover of the Brexit chaos, the government sneak out plans for further cuts to the armed forces.

Are You Being Served Notice? Revival of the classic comedy set in a department store. For the first week anyway, after that it's set in deserted retail premises in an anonymous town centre.

First Peek at Christmas TV Schedules

You saw it here first....

Luther: in an updated version of the 500 year old tale, a disgruntled millenial pins 95 Christmas present requests on his Facebook profile, and causes a Europe-wide revolution when he doesn't get what he wants. Originally billed to star David Cameron but nobody's seen him for months.

Doctor Where? Live coverage of an A&E department on Boxing Day. There's a New Year special too, where the Doctor scours the globe from India, to the Philippines, to most of Africa, trying to find treatment for her sick companions, only to discover that all the trained health workers have left to work for the NHS.

Mrs Browns Buoys. Panorama special following the irascible crew of a border crossing in the middle of the Irish Sea. May run until late 2020. Or longer, much longer.

Les Miserables. The new name for BBC regional news

Waterstones Shop Down. Amazons besiege the last remaining high street shop, in a rural town somewhere in the Midlands. A host of celebrity cast members realise that ghostwritten biographies are are too insubstantial to defend themselves against the incessant volley of attack, most of it aimed at the address next door but they called and nobody was in. Where in the shop is there a book substantial enough to save them?

The Mash Report. Stocktake at the local food bank. Starring roughly 160,000 households.

The Queens Christmas Massage. By special dispensation, delivered this year by Tyson Fury. To Donald Trump.

Match of the Day: Special Edition. Which footballer can match their salary to how much they are actually worth?

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! No.

What Will the new Bake Off look like? sneak preview of New TV Listings

some of the treats in store....

Cold Feet  new political show, featuring Boris Johnson and anyone who has ever thought about standing as leader of UKIP

Fantastical Boasts and Where To Find Them  extended coverage of the US election

The Great British **** Off  the classic show gets that special Channel 4 treatment. Moved to a 9pm slot, all the contestants are 20-somethings with dubious sexual history a short temper and a microwave. Mel and Sue are replaced by Alan and Jimmy Carr

Can't Pray? We'll Take You Away!  documentary about everyday life around the world for people who've converted from Islam.

Doctor Where?  our intrepid Time Lord travels to Africa, where the population is in the grip of an epidemic, but the only trained medical staff have been poached by the NHS.

East Emmerdale Street  The government builds a new town in the Yorkshire Dales, and local authorities in Manchester and London take the chance to relocate all their social housing tenants there, so that they can build unsold office blocks and luxury flats for tax evaders.

Two and a Half Men  documentary about the Liberal Democrats

Strictly: new UK border policy. Anyone wanting refugee status in the UK has to endure 12 humiliating rounds of elimination by public vote.

The Botox Factor  a new presenter is thrown off the show after 3 weeks because lack of cosmetic surgery 'makes her look out of place'.

The Big Bung Theory  a round of up the weeks football news.

The Holy Spirit turns up on Britains Got Talent

"I feel elated, I felt so uplifted I couldn't get it out of me quick enough"
"I just feel on an incredible high, I just wish I could be up there with you clapping and singing"
"There literally no words to describe that feeling that you gave everyone in this room, it is so powerful, everything about you, everything you represent is my idea of heaven."

I've not caught the show yet, so only spotted this on social media a couple of days ago, but as well as the inspired choir, it was the judges responses that really made me sit up.

It's fascinating to hear a group of non-Christian judges trying to describe in their own words an experience of the Holy Spirit. You sense there is a bit more going on here than the standard hyperbole. And boy, what a choir, can't wait to see what they do next time.

Downton Abbey: Why His Grace has Gone Missing

God's absence from Downton Abbey was noted a couple of years ago, but it turns out it was more by design than by accident. The historical advisor to the show told the Telegraph earlier this week that DA bent over backwards to keep God out of it. On the absence of a mealtime 'grace':

“In essence you hardly ever see a table that isn’t already sat at. We never see the beginning of a luncheon or a dinner, because no one was ever allowed to see a grace being said, and I would never allow them to sit down without having said grace.

“I think that the view was that we’d leave religion out of it, and it would’ve taken extra time too. I suggested a Latin grace, but they decided that was too far, and no one would’ve known what was going on.”

Mr Bruce said that he was even banned from featuring napkins folded in the shape of a bishop’s mitre, for fear of breaching the religious edict. “Everyone panics when you try to do anything religious on the telly,”

The US screening of the show even looked at leaving out the word 'Abbey' from the title. So you leave out a prayer of thanks, but call the dog Isis.....

It's ironic that the very article which broke this story writes this about the Christmas episode: The feature-length yuletide edition will be the show’s last ever episode, ... though to be fair it does use the word 'Christmas' too. 

Even though the stories are usually fake, it's no surprise that  'Christmas banned by local council in....' gains such traction and is believed by so many people. If you can't screen a prayer on a Sunday night costume drama, when can you?

New BBC Schedules Revealed

Meal or No Meal: live broadcast from the new Job Centre Minus, where 24 people whose benefits have been stopped compete for an offer from the Food Banker.

Relocation Relocation Relocation  An exploration of government policy towards refugees. 

CountryFile: a dossier containing the personal details of everyone living within 50 miles of Hinkley Point is offered to the Chinese government, in return for a couple of free batteries. Details of the presenter still to be confirmed, we think its somebody Craven.

Doctors: A quiet week at the surgery. Of the 5 staff, one is off with stress, one is on a Junior Doctors protest march, one has just quit to work for the private sector, and one is too busy with paperwork to see any patients. That just leaves the agency guy, who came in 2014 from Uganda for 3 weeks work experience and is still here. Subtitles. 

Doctor Who?: Like Doctors, but from the patients point of view. 

Doctor Where?: Like Doctors, but broadcast from a country with a life expectancy 20 years below that in the UK, whose doctors are being poached to fill holes in the NHS.

Song of Praise: Cut down version to make more time for shopping. Unfortunately the lady in last weeks live interview from Sports Direct, talking about faith in the workplace, has been sacked for not working on a Sunday. 

Escape to the Country: this week featuring two families, a UKIP member from Uxbridge who wants to build a new house for his retirement to Devon, and an Eritrean family trying to walk through the Channel Tunnel. 

Pointless: documentary on the value of promises made during election campaigns. 

Strictly No Dancing: it probably wasn't a good idea to send Tess Daly to report on the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Her sentence has been reduced to 350 lashes.

Downton Abbi: A footballers girlfriend looks for a stately home he can buy for a weeks wages. Quite a few to choose from in his price range, as it turns out. 

Are you hiding a tightrope-walking dog?

A tightrope-walking dog won Britains Got Talent at the weekend, or did it? It was a remarkable act, but the dog which escaped from jail by tightrope during the routine was actually a stunt double for the star act, Matisse. The second dog was kept hidden backstage throughout the rest of the act, and it was kept hidden both from the judges and the voting public too, who all thought they were voting for a single dog and its trainer.

The routine is very clever, and very skilful, but its in danger of being overshadowed by what was kept hidden backstage.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it keeps cropping up so I'll mention it again. Author Simon Walker talks of our 'frontstage' and 'backstage' - what we allow other people to see, and what we keep out of sight. Alison Morgan has done an excellent summary of his work, and here's a clip:

The two stages can’t be kept completely separate – what goes on in one will always to some extent leak onto the other. This is particularly so for social and spiritual leaders and those in caring professions – their own unmet emotional needs, pushed backstage, generate resentment, envy, pride, anger or even rage – and these things begin to leak frontstage. 

When the things we didn't want people to see are discovered, or leak onto the frontstage, the response can be as its been with BGT - quite a lot of upset. There are parts of our lives which, despite the running commentary of social media, are best not disclosed and put on general display. I've actually found that people use Facebook, Twitter and the like more to manage their frontstage - to project an image and the story they want other people to see, it's the brave exceptions who still attract admiring comments.

But it's best not to have secrets if we can possibly avoid it.  There is a merciful Judge who knows exactly what is going on backstage, as well as front, and, to our surprise, won't vote us off if we own up.

Neil Baldwins 'Marvellous' faith

“Every morning I get up and pray. Prayer is the best gift you can have.” I ask him whether his faith comes through in the documentary and he smiles. “My friends who came along to the premiere said ‘you’ve put God in it first’ – and that’s it how should be. Sometimes Christianity is not portrayed very well. If you’ve got no Lord, you are lost. God is always working in me, and through all the people that I’ve met.“

Really enjoyed 'Marvellous' the other night, the true story of Neil Baldwin, which showed his great faith as well as a brilliant sense of fun and positivity. Read the rest of this interview with the Diocese of Lichfield here. 

Doctor Whumanist: Can the Physician Heal Himself?

The rebooted Doctor Who has a pretty thorough track record of raiding the cupboard marked 'Christianity' and smearing the contents:
 - Not one, but two lots of deadly angels, the stone ones, and the 'Angel Hosts' on the spaceship Titanic.

 - The clergy are now an armed unit of soldiers, who work for the Church of the Papal Mainframe, the evolution of the present church into a military authority. The Church decides the Doctor is a threat to the universe and a whole series is centred around their despatch of River Song to assassinate him.

 - Monks: oh yes, headless monks, not very pleasant either.

 - Confession: has its own species, the grim looking 'Silence', who maintain confidentiality by making people forget they've ever met them. Bad lot. Another enemy for the Doctor to save the world from.

 - And the Daleks recast as evangelical fundamentalists worshipping their Emperor and zealously destroying everything in their devotion.

 - religious faith portrayed as a self-destructive mania

meanwhile creating secular/scifi analogues of spiritual practice: e.g. the regeneration of David Tennants Doctor through the 'prayers' of the planet via the Archangel satellite network (actually, people all thinking about him at the same time), creating a computerised form of eternal life, and an updated Exodus story broadcast around the Passover season.

The casting may have changed, but the Richard Dawkins subplots haven't: here's a dialogue clip from Episode 1 of the new series:
"I will not die I will reach the promised land" (robot baddie)

"There isn't any promised land, this is just a superstition that you've picked up from all the humanity that you've stuffed inside yourself." (Doctor)

Here we go again....

Both episodes have ended with a mysterious character, Missy, who seems to know the Doctor, welcoming people to Paradise, the promised land, 'Heaven'. Here beginneth the story arc for the current series, and I somehow doubt that 'Heaven' will turn out to be paradise.

CS Lewis wrote the Narnia books as a deliberate attempt to appeal to the imagination and feeling, rather than reason, to commend the Christian message. Worship, sacrifice, resurrection, judgement, were experienced positiviely by the characters (and the reader) rather than described in theological words. Doctor Who seems to be doing the reverse: working its way through the Christian imagination, and recasting everything in it as either villanous or imaginary.

And yet the parasite needs the host in order to feed: Episode 2 has the Doctor trying to save the soul of a Dalek (his words), by appealing to how he felt when he saw a star born, and how that feeling showed him the truth about the universe. How postmodern, thinking with our feelings. The doctor tries to change the Dalek by putting himself into the Daleks mind, who has a conversion experience as the Doctor redescribes the universe to him: "I see beauty, I see endless divine perfection"  which the Doctor encourages him to make it a part of himself, put inside himself and live by. Is this a scifi/humanist version of the Holy Spirit? But the Dalek goes off the rails, because his saviour is himself not whole: "I see into your soul Doctor, I see beauty, I see divinity, I see...... hatred. I see your hatred of the Daleks, and it is good!" And back to EXTERMINATE it goes, just with a different target.

The Doctor asks at the end of Clara, 'Am I a good man?' to which she responds 'I don't know, but I think you try to be and that's probably the point.'

Great line, and I'm impressed by a lot of the scriptwriting so far. But even as Doctor Who debunks faith, it actually makes a profound point: yes we can change, but we need a power to change us that isn't itself tainted by the same thing we are. An imperfect saviour will not do. What we put inside ourselves, what we live by, what we are saved by, has to be entirely pure in order to work.

(use the 'doctor who' tag for previous posts on moral/spiritual issues in Britains favourite sci fi show)

"If my vicar was like you....."

"...generally the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I had a girl tweet me the other day – "I've seen you on the show," she said. "You're the only vicar I know, how do I get my baby baptised?" I'm the only vicar she knows! To me the show was worth doing just for that...

People do say to me "If my vicar was like you I'd go to church."

And my response is, "Your vicar might be like me, most vicars I know are lovely; go and meet your own vicar."

For me this is not about celebrity...we really think God asked us to do it, so we did it.

I'd risk everything for the gospel. I'll risk looking stupid I'll risk looking like an idiot. I'll risk grumblies grumbling at me because one day I'll have to stand there and answer to the one that really matters."

A big amen to that. Rev Kate Bottley on her experience on Gogglebox. Read the rest here. 

Rev - the Reviews roundup

An outpouring of articles and blogs has greeted the end of Rev., almost enough material for a new series? Here's a few I've read, if there are any good ones missing, please add them in the comments.

James Mumford in the Guardian, 'a secular take on the sacred' that undermines what the church is

really about

Al Barrett from inner city Birmingham, watched 'the Easter morning gathering of the cracked, the broken and the divided' and found it close to home.

Wildgoosechasing found the show affirmed what the church is about, a place where broken people can be honest about their failings

Sam Norton noted how Adam's quest to save the building loomed over the whole series: a question which looms over the whole CofE. It's not without significance that the church where the series was filmed is itself facing bankruptcy after spending £1/2m in the last 2 years simply on maintenance. (Just read about how king Hezekiah had to destroy the statue of a snake Moses had made in the desert. It was made to bring healing, but had become a snare as people had forgotten what it was originally there for, so it was best to break it to pieces. Made me wonder...)

David Robertson: safe to say he's not a fan, the vicar is a social worker 'if God did not exist then Rev would make perfect sense.' "Why is it that every BBC sitcom which features a church has to feature a dying church?" (good point)

Christian Research asked some questions of Christians who'd watched the programme, and found that 63% of viewers would attend a church led by Adam Smallbone

Great summary from Emma of the Easter episode, which truly was superb. 

Irene at eyebelieve on whether Rev was just 'nice' - or whether this is Christian sacrifice in action, going out of your way to welcome the sinner and build bridges. 

Robert Fairclough on the 'sensitivity and realism' of the series. 

Steve Holmes at Fulcrum, comparing and contrasting with Camerons 'Christian Britain'.

The Blog of Kevin has some good posts reflecting on previous series.

Update: Ian Paul has an excellent piece on what Rev says about clergy vulnerability, and notes that there's not much scope for comedy in a growing church. Several links there to other pieces, including Marcus Green's powerful reflections on his own breakdown and how that connected (and didn't) with how Adam was portrayed. 

For myself, I enjoyed it overall, thought the penultimate episode was brilliant, and wasn't quite sure about the final ending. 'You won't let me go apparently, is this what resurrection is?' Um, part of it perhaps, but the final show was more about vocation than resurrection. Whilst this sort of drama requires a small cast of characters in order to work (think Dibley, Father Ted), that means you'll never see a BBC drama on the church with a full building. Sadly, it doesn't look like they're able to give a fair portrayal of evangelicals either, both vignettes in the series (Roland in this one, and the youth church leader in the first series) were unsympathetic. 

Christian Research asked if people would have attended this church, I'd have been interested to know if it made people want to pray more. In the end, what we do as Revs is help people to draw closer to God: homeless, hung-up, paedophiles, pharisees, and all the other normal everyday sinners like ourselves. 

And if nothing else, there's now a great DVD resource available for clergy training.

The gospel according to Rev: vulnerable or just ineffectual?

If Yes Minister had a political agenda, Rev (which is also a wonderful comedy) appears to have its own theological axes to grind.  Smallbone stands in a long line of comically ineffectual Anglican clergy.  It’s not a coincidence that one of the most memorable villains of the first series was a clergyman with a thriving congregation. In fact, there are barely any positive mentions of anyone with the gifts or inclination to help the church to grow.

All too often, the debates within the Church of England polarise into either an unthinking focus on numerical growth or a curious glorification in decline and impotence (of the kind we see in Rev).  It is all too obvious what is wrong with an uncritical theology of success – as if “bums on seats” were more important than faithfulness and sacrifice.  In some parishes, changing demography may well make numerical growth unrealistic – and yet churches may be “present and engaged” in ways that bear a powerful witness to the Kingdom of God. Numerical growth and Kingdom growth are not always the same thing.

However, we must be equally wary of an uncritical theology of failure – which uses the language of “vulnerability” and “powerlessness” to justify structures and practices which have outlived their usefulness.  We must not confuse Christ-like vulnerability with plain, old-fashioned ineffectiveness.  And we need to remember, whenever “bums on seats” or “the numbers game” are criticised, that behind every number (or, indeed, above every “bum”…) is a life which is hopefully being transformed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

read more here. In the light of Good Friday we have to look very hard at any theology which claims that success and strength are fundamental to being an authentic church. And in the light of Easter Sunday we have to look very hard at any theology which suggests that ineffectually doing a few small but nice things in a corner is what constitutes faithful and authentic ministry. 

there are one or two other analyses of Rev. doing the rounds, which are worth putting alongside the programme itself, for example:

Giles Fraser, wants the 'kindly but inert' vicar to show more backbone

Ian Paul wonders about the missing ingredient, if you can call God an ingredient.

Malcolm Stewart at Cultbox "the Church of England is a group of people united in the knowledge that there is always something to apologise for"

Tim Stanley "Self-laceration is the stock-in-trade of the 1960s liberal Christian tradition, and Rev is its fifth gospel"

A TV Show of Biblical Proportions

The Bible, a TV miniseries made for US television, is to air on Channel 5 from Saturday 30th November, 9pm. Here's the trailer, and there's all sorts of clips, snippets & info at the link. Or go here, where Damaris have put some resources together for churches.


Having just about finished a Bible Society course on how we interpret and apply the Bible, it'll be interesting to see how the series does it. Reports are a bit mixed! But then, when did a movie version of a book ever constitute an improvement?

Or if you want something on the big screen:

Third Series of Rev. on the way

The BBC website confirms that filming has begun on the third series of Rev. I'm very pleased.

'The Bible' TV series

Channel 5 are showing the US-made miniseries (10 hours) in December, and it looks like it will come out on DVD at the same time. There's a helpful website  just launched, with lots of clips, handy episode summaries, and some linked resources created by Damaris.

I was interested to see the endorsements, including a couple of Bible scholars who say positive things about it. There's a bit more background to the project here, reviews have been mixed, though most of the Amazon crowd seem pretty happy. Can't really say any more until we've seen it!

The Right Honourable Doctor?

It's emerging that several members of the Cabinet were hoping to be named as the new Doctor Who, and are disappointed that the role has gone to a fictional spin doctor. Various names, and the reasons they were turned down, are emerging:

Teresa May: was planning to repaint the TARDIS with the UK Border Agency logo and travel the universe with the message 'Aliens Go Home'

Michael Gove: new outfit closely resembles that of a grammar school headmaster, and showed a strange reluctance to travel forward in time past 1975, a bit like his education policy

Ed Milliband: hopeless, can't distinguish between UNIT and UNITE, unable to speak to any of the UNIT personnel without saying 'no, I don't want your money, now quickly go away we mustn't be seen together'.

Nick Clegg: spends the last 5 minutes of each episode trying to explain why he'd do things differently whilst everyone else is saving the universe.

Eric Pickles: planned to travel the universe taking away whatever financial resources the local leadership has, and then leaving them to sort their own problems out.

David Cameron: only turned up for 1 in 3 episodes, leaving Clegg and William Hague to do most of the fighting for him. Catchphrase 'must work hard and get on' not really zippy enough.

William Hague: has been cast as a Sontaran

Attempts to cast a real doctor were scuppered by the fact that none of them were available at weekends.

Ancient Document discovered proving that Melvyn Bragg is Dan Brown

One hallowed British Easter tradition is that, over the Easter weekend, there's a TV programme which casts doubt on Jesus resurrection/existence/sanity/marital status. This year it's the turn of the BBC, where Melvyn Bragg 'goes behind the myth' of Mary Magdalene. Yes, you know what's coming next...

That's right, Bragg is this years graduate from the Dan Brown School of Historical Speculation, yet another victim to the modern virus which insists that the most important thing about people is who they're having sex with.

Bragg has written an extensive piece in preview to the BBC programme: reading it will save you the trouble of watching the telly. It's most glaring piece of foolishness is Braggs own admission that he doesn't believe in the resurrection, nor in God. If he's right on that, then everything else about Jesus is irrelevant, as is everything the church says about him. A dead Jesus is also a deluded Jesus, and makes liars of Jesus himself, and the gospel writers, and the rest of the writers of the new testament. In that context, who cares what kind of relationship he had with Mary? It's a footnote to a footnote, written in pencil.

But somehow Bragg is far more interested in whether Jesus snogged Mary Magdalene than whether he rose from the dead. Because that's clearly the most important fact in all of this.

Another piece of bizarreness:

 If you think that the gospels are – minus miracles – reasonably convincing accounts of a unique man and his followers, then the least we owe them is a historical debt. I agree with Graham Greene and others that what makes them convincing is the density of detail. They were written at a time when fictional, that is mythological, writing simply did not have this kind of detail. And further we underestimate the power of oral history, which is what the gospels were recording. We have no problem accepting the accounts of men who fought in the First World War and yet there was a shorter gap between the events the gospels depicted and their inscription then there is between 1914 and now.

i.e. Bragg is prepared to accept that the gospels are convincingly historical. Except for the bits he doesn't agree with.   I don't even know where to begin to start critiquing that as a historical method. At the same time he gives the 'Gospel' of Philip just as much weight as an authority on Mary, despite the fact that it is a Gnostic tract written 200+ years after Jesus.  Bragg mentions a 'Mary of Egypt' in a section on 'Marys in the Bible', but there's no such Mary in the Bible - she's a 4th/5th century saint. Bragg just appears to have Googled 'Mary, Christianity' and stitched together the results. 

It really is very depressing and annoying. I'd be happier if there was something in the BBC's Easter output that didn't root the true retelling of Easter in high culture and classical music. Ah well, I'll just have to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with real people. There are some things TV is no substitute for.

Celebrities above Criticism

The grim revelations around Jimmy Saville are a reminder how toxic it is to place people above criticism, or to develop a culture where certain things are routinely shushed. I think back now to the TV of my teenage years, both BBC and ITV, which routinely depicted women as sex objects (Kenny Everett, Benny Hill) and maybe its not so surprising that female employees were treated the way they were.

Have we moved on? The pack instinct still seems to prevail when it comes to coverage of celebrity lifestyles. The National Treasure is above criticism (Claire Balding, Stephen Fry, Bradley Wiggins, Cheryl Cole), the Public Enemy can't do anything right (Kevin Pietersen, Simon Cowell). Others attempt to control their own narrative - one popular tweeter makes a habit of retweeting any criticism to their legions of followers, who then descend in an avalanche of abuse upon the victim. It's a clever method of vicarious bullying, and makes people think twice about saying anything negative.

All this is pretty dangerous. Whilst as a nation we tend towards cynicism, and hand out praise far too reluctantly, we also need to make sure that nobody is above criticism. Allowing a culture to develop around people which refuses to hear the truth at all costs is dangerous. It can happen within subcultures, within organisations, within a country. But all of us are a glorious ruin, sometimes the ruin is most obvious, sometimes the glory.