Simon Hoggart

Adult viewing

On a train the other day I overheard a teenage schoolgirl tell her friends, ‘I’m going to watch Channel 4 from eight to midnight!’ When I got home I checked the Radio Times: she was looking forward to Embarrassing Teenage Bodies, Big Brother, Ugly Betty and finally Skins.

issue 25 July 2009

On a train the other day I overheard a teenage schoolgirl tell her friends, ‘I’m going to watch Channel 4 from eight to midnight!’ When I got home I checked the Radio Times: she was looking forward to Embarrassing Teenage Bodies, Big Brother, Ugly Betty and finally Skins.

On a train the other day I overheard a teenage schoolgirl tell her friends, ‘I’m going to watch Channel 4 from eight to midnight!’ When I got home I checked the Radio Times: she was looking forward to Embarrassing Teenage Bodies, Big Brother, Ugly Betty and finally Skins. Only Ugly Betty could be called a programme for grown-ups, and opinions might differ on that.

Thank heavens, there is still some non-teeny-telly left. Much of it is on BBC4. Take How to be a Composer (Saturday and Sunday), which took the rock critic and performer Paul Morley to the Royal Academy of Music to learn the trade.

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