I don’t quite know when it happened but I’ve realised that I no longer sit down and watch the news on TV with any degree of regularity. Having spent a lifetime in the broadcast industry, the need to know what was going on in the world became an occupational habit and with the advent of rolling news channels, television became my drug of choice. But now it appears I’ve started to look elsewhere for my regular factual fix.
Call me on a Monday night and you’ll wind up talking to my answering machine. Not because I’m out at bingo or washing what’s left of my hair but because I’m super-glued to my TV, following Gene Hunt’s latest antics in the gloriously un-PC Ashes To Ashes. It’s not just the old cops & robbers routine that attracts me, nor the fact that even the darkest days of the 80’s are now starting to look rosy in these old eyes of mine but more than anything, I just happen to love the music.
You could be forgiven for thinking that a cabinet minister had resigned yesterday after being caught with his pants down. But in fact, this morning’s front pages all carry doorstep pictures of former BBC political reporter John Sergeant, who’s "decided" to quit the ballroom dance contest Strictly Come Dancing in spite of a tidal wave of pubic support. The big question is: was he leaned on?