All about sex

The Song of Lunch (BBC2) was a rum old go. Christopher Reid’s poem, about a publisher half-hoping to rekindle a past love affair over an Italian meal, was read out by Alan Rickman, who acted the publisher and recreated the lines on film.

The Song of Lunch (BBC2) was a rum old go. Christopher Reid’s poem, about a publisher half-hoping to rekindle a past love affair over an Italian meal, was read out by Alan Rickman, who acted the publisher and recreated the lines on film. Thus, when the poet wrote, ‘he drinks until the ice rests on his upper lip’, you see the ice, actually resting on his upper lip! Or, ‘the menu slices into their conversation, like a sweetly swung axe’, you see the menu there, in colour, slicing into their conversation like a sweetly swung axe. Only television can do this! It was a rare modern example of ‘Lord Privy Seal’ television, invented by TW3, in which the job title was accompanied by pictures of a peer, a toilet and a sea mammal.