Poldark -a load of rubbish

Every Sunday evening I am now sentenced to an hour of hell- watching Poldark.  Alright I know I watch a lot of rubbish TV but this has to be the  tops as far as rubbish TV goes. My wife though loves it. Apparently women up and down the country swoon every Sunday at Ross Poldark, switching on the TV in the hope that -once again - he will take off his shirt and scythe some hay.

Perhaps if Teresa May and her advisers watched Poldark they would not have called the election because our 'Ross' bears a striking resemblance to Jeremy Corbyn. Not just in being unshaven, or always slovenly dressed but in his complete absence of even the slightest knowledge about economics or actually what's going on in his own county-yet everyone loves him!.

So last night we were informed that in the year 1792 or thereabouts there was 'famine in Cornwall' and the 'people were starving.'  No they weren't. There was no famine in Cornwall in the 18th or 19th century. We were then shown harrowing pictures of starving Cornishmen being shot down by wicked red coat soldiers as they tried to loot a ship which had just arrived full of grain.  Apparently the wicked nouveau riche banker Warleggan- seeing the masses starve -had decided to import some grain to feed them and make -it is true - a handsome profit on the side.  But at least he was bringing grain in for the starving, no one else apparently was. Then the hero, the imbecilic Ross, waking up suddenly to the famine(rather late in the day one would have thought) organised a shipment grain himself and gave it all a way free!

Ross, the hero, is oddly, a member of an old Cornish gentry family fallen on hard times.  He reads the Guardian daily (Ok I made that bit up) , has married the daughter of a Cornish peasant, who keeps on having babies.  Everyone apart from the villain and Ross speaks in a BBC 'mockney' Cornish accent. In other words an accent which has absolutely not a scintilla in common with the real glorious West Country burr which I so well remember from my boyhood.  Why can't the BBC hunt in its voluminous sound archives for genuine Cornishmen speaking and get these overpaid half wit actors to try and get their tongues around the beautiful tones and nuances of broad Cornish, too idle I suppose. 

To add insult to injury most of the filming in the series is not even done in Cornwall. Warleggan's house is, for instance, actually in Gloucestershire. So the history is complete and utter rubbish , the economics laughable, the accents pathetic, and most of the sets bogus. The only good thing are the occasional 'artistic' shots of the glorious Cornish coast. But who cares as long as the ratings are good. Well I care because with a little bit of care and attention the BBC could have made a cracking series which DID get the history, the accents and the details right.  Once thirty odd years or more ago that is what they did better than anyone else in the world. Not any more. Now sadly the BBC is run by morons for morons.

ties or tieless

The ghastly Bercow - otherwise known as the Speaker of the House of Commons - has given permission for MP's to remove their ties.

This 'tieless' move is -I suppose- yet another example of the 'dumbing down' of every aspect of public life. I think it was Tony Blair who begun it all with his shallow 'folksy' image of being 'one of the lads.'  Cameron then took it all a step further - taking his coat and tie off and rolling up his sleeves with the idea - I suppose - of hoping everyone would think he was hardworking chap -rather than what most of them actually thought - that he was a complete phoney- which of course he was/is.

For it is an odd thing about your average Brit that they actually rather like you to 'dress the part.'  We want our Prime Minister to look and behave like a Prime Minister not like a second rate accountant on a day off.  We also -I think - want our MP's to look and behave like MP's (OK I know that's wishful thinking.) 

But there is more to 'dressing up' than just looking the part - I believe the dress you wear helps you to be  the part.  Those of us who remember when policemen where smart as paint also remember that they were very polite and  were admired the world over - now they look like slobs and more often than not behave like slobs and I can't help thinking that discipline in schools would be enormously improved if masters once more wore gowns and mortar boards.