James Delingpole James Delingpole

Discreet charm

I’ve got this brilliant idea for a Sunday night TV series.

issue 23 May 2009

I’ve got this brilliant idea for a Sunday night TV series.

I’ve got this brilliant idea for a Sunday night TV series. It’s called Inspector Fluffy and His Agreeable Pipe. Every week, Inspector Fluffy (Stephen Fry) will travel to a picturesque corner of Britain in his battered Morris Traveller, giving tearaway gypsy children clips round the ear, discovering that it was a magpie that really took the silverware, judging marrow competitions in vicarage gardens. While cogitating on the latest mystery, he will suck on his agreeable pipe, with lots of stupendous Apprentice-style aerial shots showing the English countryside in all its gasp-inducing majesty.

It’s easy to take the mickey out of Sunday night TV but I think what we snooty critics sometimes forget is it’s not there for us. It’s not there to be clever or challenging or even good.

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