First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 7th 2023

One of the things that bothers me about modern television is the way I feel it is often directed, written, and designed to deliberately manipulate the viewer into feeling a particular almost designated set of emotions, as if we can no longer be trusted to respond in the right way, and so our sympathies and reactions are manipulated to feel sympathy where the creators decide we ought to, instead of just telling a story and leaving the rest of us to decide whether or not, and how, to feel about the story unfolding in front of us.

What kind of a monster are you if you don’t feel THIS… or THIS…! or THIS!!! even when it is often the same old tropes and clichés that are being churned out, in often very predictable ways, but with the addition of a suitably mournful tune underscoring them to make sure that you all get the point.

And if a large enough chunk of the audience put down their boxes of tissues for long enough to head off and tell everyone in their social media circle just how emotionally draining they found the latest episode of today’s trendiest family drama, and announce to anyone who follows them that it is the best television programme ever, BAFTA awards and future series are almost certain to follow.

 Whilst cynical old heads sitting in the corner might be fully aware that, however original this latest series might claim to be, they’ve seen it all before, and often done far better, and without any of that sort of nonsense, this is often not a popular position to take when the tabloids are turning yet another mundane, predictable drama series into a “must-see” unmissable phenomenon.

And whilst Archive TV is sometimes denigrated for being far too linear, or far too predicable in the way it portrayed emotional responses, if it chose to show any at all, some of the smartest, classiest, and most harrowing dramas and sitcoms of yesteryear managed to create many memorable gut-punch moments mostly without needing to fall back on such heightened fast-cutting, enhanced melodramatic techniques.

 Anyway, with television’s handling of emotions in mind, WARREN CUMMINGS is back this week to discuss such matters, whether it’s a touch of DOCTOR WHO, CALLAN, M*A*S*H, or ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, and I do hope that we can all stagger through the hour without finding it all rather too exhausting.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.