If you don’t yet watch Gogglebox on Channel 4, start doing so now. Far from making you despise our couch-potato nation, it will make you feel great affection for it. Sprawled on L-shaped sofas with comfort cushions or slobbering dogs on their tummies, or sitting side by side on armchairs with a vase of carnations on a doily between them, the programme’s chosen telly-watchers make what must be the most unselfconscious, and therefore genuine, remarks spoken by anyone on air.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Giles and Mary are the most watchable of all the watchers. ‘Meanwhile, in Wiltshire…’ says the narrator, and you glimpse a thatched cottage, and then the camera homes in on Giles Wood and Mary Killen frowning side by side on two armchairs with books (at last!) in the background. Giles says something laconic and spot-on, which doesn’t make Mary laugh. Without looking at him she reminds him to check the Volvo for oil as two of their cars have died thanks to Giles forgetting to check the oil.
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