Peter Rhodes on Derry Girls, gore-fest TV and the return of Beergate to haunt Keir Starmer
Unforeseen consequences of telly-streaming binge-viewing. Of late, Mrs Rhodes and I have been curling up for hours on end with The Last Kingdom and Squid Game, two excellent but ultra-violent Netflix offerings. Barely a minute slips by without someone getting impaled on a sword, executed by sniper rifle or has his brains pureed by a war hammer.
And then, having digested those two gore-fests, we switch to the genteel delights of Bridgerton, also on Netflix. And how strange it seems to watch an entire episode of a drama without anybody getting eviscerated.
Meanwhile, is anyone not disappointed in the latest season of Derry Girls (C4)? Part of the problem is the show's much-debated age issue; In real life the stars, supposedly teenage schoolgirls, are now aged from 27-34. But the show has also lost its sparky, wide-eyed innocence of its earlier seasons. The characters have become caricatures and the jokes try too hard. It breaks the golden rule of showbiz: always leave the audience wanting more.
Any permanent settlement of the Ukrainian war will involve both sides trying to claim some sort of victory. Russia will acquire some territory and Ukraine will keep some access to the Black Sea. This means Russia will profit from its aggression, which stinks, but what's the alternative? A 100-year war? A nuclear exchange? Accepting a compromise is an example of that cynical old Cold War term, realpolitik, defined in the dictionary as “politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.”
In other words, an imperfect peace may be revolting but it might work. And at a time when realpolitik is on the cards, the last thing we need is Foreign Secretary Liz Truss feverishly doing her Maggie act and promising: “We will keep going further and faster to push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine.” She may mean well but she's making things worse, not better.
Did I not forecast that “Beergate” would come back to haunt Keir Starmer? And so it has. After months of denying that Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner was at the event in Durham, the Labour Party now admits that she was. But apparently the denial was a “mistake” and was made “in good faith.” So that's all right, then.
