Down on the Farm

Edwardian Farm finished last night - this, and it's associated projects have been the best things on TV in years. I was impressed and a bit moved by the way it ended - they seemed to have understood that most people were watching the show, misty eyed and nostalgic over a bucolic world they never even knew, and changed the tone of the last ten minutes by acknowledging that and leading us into a new world, the Great War, industrialisation and emancipation. Gone indeed were the days when sons could expect to work with their fathers, uncles and siblings in the fields - most would be dead or gone away, even the animals participated in the conflict with a very sobering reflection on the horses that were sent to France to die in the mud - and as the cast boarded the riverboat for the final time to strains of Jerusalem, there wasn't a dry eye in my house. I can't imagine what it must really have been like to live in a world where the extent of your experience is no further than you can walk in a day.

Masses to do today, just trying to wake up. Nothing very interesting in the papers. I was woken by the radio at about 5.30 with a news report ( this is BBC Radio 4 ) that Robbie Williams might not be as m as he could be to Take That... not sure how this qualifies as world news... must be missing something.