James Delingpole James Delingpole

Breaking Bad is so harrowing that for a while James Delingpole couldn’t watch it

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issue 24 August 2013

One of Boy’s more annoying teenage rules of thumb is that, if Dad likes it, it must be crap. This applies of course not just to all those classic albums I consider an essential part of his education from Led Zep III to After the Goldrush, but to books, films and TV shows as well.

In our precious final years together before he leaves home to work his way up the Greenpeace hierarchy, I’d been quite looking forward to snatching a few father/son bonding moments as we settled down in front of, say, Ghosts of Mars, High Plains Drifter, Das Boot, The Sopranos or, as a special treat, the entire series of Band of Brothers back to back. But I’m beginning to fear that it ain’t going to happen.

‘Dad,’ he said to me the other day. ‘I just watched Withnail & I.’ Nervously, I asked how he’d found it. ‘Pretty decent,’ he said.

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