Cancel Culture

Every so often something happens that makes you think that maybe the current Covid situation isn't all bad.  This week it was the announcement that Britain's Got Talent had been cancelled this year - with any luck they'll forget to bring it back in 2022.  We've already had the announcement that Glastonbury is off for another year and the Tokyo Olympics, already postponed from last year, are looking doubtful for this Summer.  Slowly but surely, some of the greatest annual bores are being eliminated.  Yes, I know that I'm a miserable anti-social bastard, but be honest, is a TV programme showcasing supremely untalented members of the public really entertainment?  Is anyone, other than those actually attending it, really interested in the Glastonbury Festival, isn't it just one of those things people pretend to be into because they think it makes them seem 'cool' and 'with it'?  Does anyone really sit through wall-to-wall sport for a solid fortnight when the Olympics take over our media every four years?  Isn't it just two weeks of utter boredom?  I know that, arguably, in normal times we have the option of not watching these things, but the reality is hat seem inescapable, so much media space do they take up.  

Anyway, I'm now living in hope that the Eurovision Song Contest will be off for another year - a blessed relief from what has become, for the UK, an exercise in masochism at we succeed in selecting a dire song, then apparently watch with dismay as it comes last.  But where will TV be without these allegedly popular mainstays to fill their schedules?  Come up with something new and different, hopefully. I mean, all of these things have been running for tears, decades in some cases and are, in TV terms, exhausted formats which badly need to be renewed or replaced.  Programme makers should see the pandemic as a fantastic opportunity to kick these tired old formats into touch and strike out in new directions.  Not that they will.  As soon as they can, they'll revert back to the same old dross.  Of course, the thing I'm really looking forward to being - hopefully - cancelled for a second consecutive year is my local excuse for a pop festival, Crapchester Shite, sorry, Crapchester Live.  This is one that I really can't escape, as it is staged in the park across the road from me and forces us local residents to endure forty eight hours of ear-splitting cacophony from the various local amateur 'bands' that perform, (it combines the worst aspects of a 'talent' show and Glastonbury).  Not to mention having our local streets overrun with drunken morons who drop rubbish everywhere and think it OK to trespass into people's gardens and use them as toilets.  Thankfully, in recent years they have started charging for entry (it was previously free, meaning that it attracted mooks from all over the county), which has reduced attendance,  Last year it was cancelled, meaning that my neighbours and I were able to enjoy a peaceful Summer, free of people shitting and pissing in our gardens.  Yeah, I know, I'm a miserable git and a killjoy!