The might of the Church of England has been unleashed upon reality television and dumb programming in general. Its members point out that Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and even Little Britain aren't very good. In fact they are accused of lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings:
There were complaints about everything from BBC news bulletins undermining respect for the prime minister by referring to him only by his surname, to 11-year-olds from cathedral schools being allowed to watch films such as the latest James Bond, Casino Royale, with its torture scene. Edmund Marshall, a lay member from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said that although he and his wife enjoyed Strictly Come Dancing they objected to the "melodramatic excess" of singling out losing contestants. "To me as a Christian, the ethos is to seek and save those who have been losers," he said.
Just like the Church of England we're not sure where Channel Four would be right now without losers. But with one firm offering penance and a plate of digestives while the other offers the chance to be sort of famous for sort of not doing much it's going to be hard for the do-gooders to win back the lost. And won't someone please think about the children?
Dana Delap of Durham complained that one of her sons had been taken to see Casino Royale and that another was obsessed with Power Rangers. "Tell me the things that my children should be watching," she pleaded.
Must be difficult having one son in 2007 and another trapped in 1995. Seriously, kids are still watching Power Rangers? Weird. Our advice then is to expand their horizons and get hold of the original Japanese Super Sentai. Much better than those Mighty Morphin idiots. As for the other kid, while we respect the lure of Daniel Craig he'll appreciate the film more with a better sense of history. Maybe treat him to You Only Live Twice on DVD. The other kid will get off on the bad martial arts and it was adapted by Roald Dahl after all.
The only way to destroy bad TV is with good TV. How about plasma screens hanging in all churches and instead of a reading from the same old boring book each Sunday, the congregation instead gets treated to some Avengers or Columbo. Everyone loves Columbo.
