Heard the BBC's Sean Curran neatly trap Sir Ming Campbell on my way home this evening. It happened on Radio 4's PM show as Mr Curran invited Sir Ming to demonstrate his familiarity with popular culture.
A pretty easy question as these things go - did he watch Coronation Street?.
"Oh yes - regularly", replied Sir Ming.
"Who's your favourite character then?" asked the guileless Curran.
Sir Ming faffed about and came up with Bet Lynch. Now, apparently, she left the show three years ago. Mr Curran pressed Sir Ming along "that's ancient history" lines. Sir Ming, I suspect sensing disaster, waffled out a "wouldn't like to rate one above another" type answer. And that's where it ended - though who wielded the merciful editorial scissors here I don't know.
A number of points emerge from this.
If I'd had the wit to ask Sir Ming that question, I wouldn't have had the knowledge to challenge his Bet Lynch answer. My last regular watching of Corrie was in Ena Sharples days.
So - clearly - this is an example of why journalists should be abreast of popular culture (before correction that came out as 'culturd' - an interesting new word).
Like Sir Ming, I listen to Radio 4 and don't have Arctic Monkeys on my iPod (but I do have an iPod) . My soaps are 'The Archers' and 'West Wing'. I suspect neither rate as touch-stones of popular culture with our tabloid press.
So again, like Sir Ming, a guess I'm a 'toff'. Now that's a word I thought was these days confined to the arcane vocabulary of the red-top tabs. But no. It featured in the BBC PM piece from the Liberal Conference. Shame on you Sean Curran - surely there's a BBC editorial guideline prohibiting such usage.
Are "The Archers", "Just a Minute", "The Now Show", "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" and all the rest of them, including "PM" and "Today" just the preserve of 'toffs'?
I think not. But they do represent an under-researched area of popular culture. Maybe Channel 4 Radio will lavish money on acedemia to unpick this area.
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