Chumps, chums and broken dads

Despite hours of wonderful sunshine and the lure of the great outdoors mediaboy nevertheless encountered one or two tonnes of mediabollocks in the last week: the outrage (trademark the tabloid press) expressed over Dr. Rowan Williams' comments on sharia law; Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's weekly scuffle over film reviews; and coming up the rails at the last moment a depressing radio debate hosted by Phil Williams on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio 5 Live.

mediaboy has a fascination with leadership, especially within public life. The contrast between our previous and our current PMs is worth a book alone. Last week the leader of the Church of England demonstrated the kind of naivety unique to truly great public leaders. Dr. Rowan Williams http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/71 is no doubt intelligent and well meaning, whether or not you are a believer. What he does not appear to be, given the events of last week, is a shrewd political operator. mediaboy does not wish to dwell on what he may or may not have said. mediaboy merely wonders if he might have thought a little on how our headline hungry press would interpret his words. It's not Dr. Williams' fault that his lecture was (cliché alert) blown out of all proportion and that any debate he may have wanted to spark was drowned in a tabloid tide; mediaboy's bollocks-of-the-week award goes to any member of the press who (inadvertently my arse) managed to stir up more islamophobia. Could do better, Dr. W; give us a break, headline writers.

Another unique, well, weekly, hurricaine of hyperbole is Friday's film review on the Simon Mayo show on mediaboy's favourite white van man radio station, 5 Live. The Simon Mayo show is probably the station's prize asset outside of sport. And by sport mediaboy means football. Let's not pretend anything but lip service is paid to other sports. Mayo's magazine show is a cut above the competition and mediaboy salutes the presenter for providing occasional intellectual rigour where usually none resides. mediaboy is also a fan of Mark Kermode, or Dr. Mark Kermode, or 'the good doctor', or 'the venerable doctor' as he is known on 5 Live on Fridays. mediaboy even wants to know what Mr. Kermode thinks about all things cinematographic. What mediaboy does not want, however, is to hear ever again whether or not he has brought in Simon's coffee and whether he has paid for it himself. (Every week, every week!) mediaboy would also rather not listen to the manufactured conflict/banter between two otherwise talented broadcasters. You are better than that. You don't need to come over all blokey to keep your audience happy. Rise above the cliché and out of your comfort zones. This section of the show has become a stale and tired parody of itself with the odd golden nugget amongst the usual chummy crap. mediaboy tunes in to hear Mark Kermode's insightful views on the weekly releases alongside references to film history and does not want him to "name two films that include a turquoise sorbet" (a listener question) or sidetrack into conversation you might overhear in a bar. And move away from. Last Friday saw the release of at least four films that could grace a Top 10 Films of the Year and yet mediaboy's heart sank as the presenters obsessed, baited by the listeners, about the accent of the Daniel Day Lewis character and who it resembles. This was an opportunity for all concerned (presenters and listeners) to issue smug and obscure pronouncements. Canadian Prime Minister anyone? Mayo's dismissal of message boards (he could have spat out his opinion) sat ironically next to this ridiculous display of inane and irrelevant presenter/listener banter that ate into the time available to actually review the films. Shame really, as mediaboy still recommends the podcast or listening again via http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/index.shtml?refresh.

Still, but briefly, on 5 Live, mediaboy was dismayed to hear the usually dependable Phil Williams host a discussion on divorce settlements. Fair play to the producers of the Victoria Derbyshire show for coming up with a decent subject for debate. However, this was linked to the McCartney - Mills divorce case and was therefore another opportunity to bash Heather Mills. It also unleashed a torrent of anti-female sentiment from a large number of damaged or resentful husbands and fathers. What could have been interesting and entertaining was at least sad and at worst unpleasant. The debate was balanced with approxmately two female callers. Presumably this was representative of the audience.

This week mediaboy recommends All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and Pulling on BBC 2.