I watched three programmes on the BBC last night. First up, the Panorama episode about, you guessed it, Brexit. I actually thought it was okay. Reasonably balanced. Of course, I'm of the general opinion that there's a huge pro-EU bias in the mainstream media, so I'm always expecting a heavy degree of bias now. However, this wasn't actually too bad, and being an avid follower of all things Brexit I naturally enjoyed watching it.
After this I watched a documentary about circumcision on BBC 1 titled A Cut Too Far. As per above, I'm always expecting the worst with mainstream documentaries these days, but this one was surprisingly balanced and considerate. I'm pretty much against circumcision, and being from a secular family of Christian stock it's something that I don't really understand the attraction of (though I do have a close family member who was circumcised for medical reasons, so it's not a completely foreign notion in our family). Anyway, seeing Muslim, Jewish and also Christians from the African tradition express their views on the practice was interesting. It was very well worth watching.
Then finally I watched This Week - the final ever episode. It seems odd that it's ending given how increasingly popular it's been getting. It has a weird blend of incredibly light-hearted satire and serious political discussion. A very enjoyable show to watch. All centred around Andrew Neil's part-poetic, part-comedic introductions and segues.
Some of the scripted feature pieces on the show are truly awful (they excelled themselves in that regard with the Grease satire last night), but they're done in that knowing way where they're self-aware of how awful it is. So it's almost self-satire. Very British in a way. I'm sure they'll try to replace the show with something else similar now, but they won't get the tone right.
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