The West Side Story sequence with Juan Mendoza playing bongos while perching on the front of the Mole crane. Still a thrilling bit of TV.

Also shouldn't it be fewer calories?

Thank you.

Yeah, I think it was In Pieces, if, that is, I haven't completely made it up.

And yet when anyone voices reasonable concerns about Woody Allen...

The slippery slope was always there. Cleo Laine and Johnnie Dankworth both wore clothes. You would have ended up writing about clothes eventually.

This Littlejohn stuff was awful forced heartiness. The Whale shows were genuinely unpredictable WTF television. I had huge respect for Whale as a broadcaster.

Or maybe it's just all about her?

Or for a more extreme example, Allison Pearson used to be just a decent TV critic

Windy Miller *was* a cunt though, the folk-horror looking, unblinking bastard.

Oh God, poor you. I know that feeling, though. I've been slightly relieved when something stops, yet unable to say "I quit".

It was exactly the opposite of what he thought, but the money was SO GOOD, he considered it. Briefly.

I was very lucky. Even when I worked for the Express, I was never told "It has to have this angle". I was told how long, how much and when it was due.

Mind you, you can stay in your lane and still have trouble. Someone I knew was asked by the Mail to write a snide piece about something he knew a lot about and loved. Children's television, so probably "Why Windy Miller was a cunt".