Looking through the TV listings today was interesting. Just how many programmes are there about death and murder? We have Death by the Seaside, Worst Killers, Unsolved Murders, and then you have all of the soaps with murders. Death in Paradise – I would hate to live on an island with so many murders, Midsomer Murders and all of those deaths in Oxford investigated by Morse. The BBC did an interesting review of TV murders. I love the fact that they go back to Titus Andronicus to compare death rates there.
Isn’t it about time we had shows like “Twisted Ankle in Torquay”, of “Headache in Horsham”. It would be much more realistic, and might be a bit less depressing.
But it is worth looking close at the TV listings. Once again I have started to see an apparent increase in WW2 films. If I were to say “Broadsword calling Danny boy” would you recognise the film? A lot of people would.
I remember one time I was in central Vienna when a student protest walked through the street – complaining about the far right Joerg Haider. They were chanting “Haider is Hitler”. A young man walked up to an elderly gent who was standing in front of me. He held out a leaflet and said “Haider id Hitler”. What followed next gave me chills. The elderly gent said “Young man, if Haider was Hitler you would not be here.” And you could tell he had seen his country run by Hitler.
But he was right, we tend to over-exaggerate how evil leaders are. Really – Germans are not trying to invade us. The war ended a long time ago. I understand that we needed propaganda films like “Went the Day Well” during the war, but it really does feel like we are being subjected to propaganda films today. It is almost like some people want us to dislike our European near neighbours.