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My son drew me a picture today. It's not a bad depiction of a human face, albeit one with a very long mouth, but I am impressed with his skills, especially given that he is 28 years old. But it comes with a note explaining what is in the picture (all artists should do this as you often can't tell what they are getting at), presumably dictated by Ernie. It says, “This is Daddy, happy, working.â€
So as delighted as I am that my son painted something especially for me, at its core there is a message there, isn't there? That I am only happy when I am working. Or that I am always working. Or that I am unhappy when I am not working.
It'd be heartwarming if Daddy was happy because he was playing with his kids, but to this kid at least, daddy working is how he sees me.
When it comes down to it is that how I want the kids to remember me? Or should I give up working and play with them all the time, so that their memories of me are of us having fun, not me stuck behind my computer?
Ironically I am writing this entry whilst I am in sole charge of both kids and they're watching TV. So maybe there's something in it.
I was sad to see that the Mash Report has been cancelled (though Nish had told me when he did RHLSTP last month so it wasn't a surprise). There's so little satire on UK TV and I struggle to think of a show that has done topical comedy as well as this show in my lifetime. We haven't been great at satire since (possibly) the sixties. Not the Nine o Clock News was special and the stuff from Armando Iannucci/Chris Morris is great (though often more a satire of the media/government in general rather than a topical show). But aside from that I think Mash Report was the closest thing to a decent UK look at the news. And more importantly it gave a raft of new performers a chance to appear on TV and managed to be pretty diverse, as well as encompassing a broader range of opinions than it's given credit for. Also, even though the right wing press held it up as an example of BBC left wing bias (imagine dedicating 30 minutes a week to one view point for maybe 8 weeks of the year), this programme was the one comedy show that gave a decent amount of time to right wing comedian Geoff Norcott.
It had become a political football and I know that some people didn't like it because it was hosted by a man with brown skin. Maybe the BBC has sincerely taken it off to give room for new comedy projects (but there are a lot of older shows that I'd consider taking off first and it will be interesting to see what they replace it with). I'd love to see a bit more satire on TV and personally I don't really care what view point it comes from. I'd be very happy and curious to see a right wing satire show.
I didn't agree with all the view points in the Mash Report or think it was all brilliant, but it felt like it had great potential and from the tweets I got in response I'd say a lot of the opposition came from people who probably hadn't watched much of it (one person told me they had seen one minute of the show and that was enough for them to judge not only the show, but the fact that the cast would be going to a bistro afterwards to congratulate themselves on how brilliant they were. When I said that probably wasn't enough time to judge a comedy show (or what the political balance might be) they said that they had watched it for maybe 5 minutes.
Hopefully the BBC will replace this with another show that gives a tiny window of opportunity for new and younger voices to express modern political views (and again not just from one side), and hopefully it isn't another example of the BBC being pegged back by media magnates who see it as a rival, but I have to say, it's not looking good.
