How I wish I was mentally living the weekend already - fat chance with a pile of marking and three lectures to write for Monday. I'm coping by playing very calming music (Tallis, Allegri) in the office and breaking off for the occasional peruse of my new Norton edition of Le Morte Darthur. Mmm.
Did anyone watch 10 O'Clock Live last night? Channel 4's homegrown version of The Late Show (and full marks for the imaginative title guys), intended to be a satirical take on politics and news for the 18-30s. With a cast of David Mitchell (his compulsory presence is a clause in all channels' charters), Lauren Laverne, Charlie Brooker and Jimmy Carr, I assumed it would be 75% good.
Oh dear. David Mitchell: informed, spontaneous, quite funny. Charlie Brooker did what Charlie Brooker does. Good, but hardly innovative. Poor Lauren, for whom I have a deal of respect, was badly used as eye candy and in terrible, terrible sketches. She's brighter than that. I really hope the scriptwriters up their games. They clearly hate Jimmy Carr (and fair enough). Why else would they have given him the lamest, oldest jokes they could find on the internet? Perhaps they knew it's the kind of material he's most comfortable with. At least it kept him away from his Gypsy material.
Live satire is difficult, and a first show always has teething problems - but it was still unwatchable.
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