There’s nothing to watch on TV! In recent years I’ve often said this, complaining that there’s nothing that will keep me rooted to my armchair for an hour or so without my mind turning to other things I might be doing with my time, and quite soon getting up to do them. TV seemed full of endless repetitive programmes about cooking, buying houses, dancing or singing, not to mention football and of course drama, which seemed to have turned increasingly nasty and unpleasant, even shocking, to watch. Then there are the actors whose aim at realism seems to consist largely of mumbling totally inaudible dialogue. And there was me thinking acting was about communication.
But wait! Catch-up TV has arrived along with dramas which manage to be gripping without depending on violence with knives, guns or bare fists. Doctor Foster, The A Word, Kiri, Happy Valley all became unmissable. Even that, for me, no-go genre, humour and sitcom is beginning to need looking at afresh. While I can’t even have Mrs Brown’s Boys on the screen for more than a few microseconds, my sister recently pointed out to me Derry Girls on Channel 4. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time with tears of laughter streaming down my cheeks while watching TV, or possibly anything else. I spent a short time teaching in a girl’s convent school, and I feel I know those girls personally. Episode three in particular was hysterically funny to me. Anyone else feel the same?