Nevertheless, the show we tune in to from under eiderdown or deep in inky waters is far removed from what it once was. Increasingly, my circadian rhythms are being disrupted by its tsunami of banal. News, politics and foreign policy is being consumed by a strange obsession with the arts. The National Year of Reading 2026, a campaign led by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust, has prompted a fixation with children’s books. Every other item seems to be a story about some Edwardian classic now turned into a film. The tone of the show has evolved also. The pugnacious political interrogation once deployed has been replaced by chummy conversation and presenters choking on their own empathy. Instead of spicy debate and provocation it’s all windy chit-chat with thought leaders, and interviews that sound like quasi therapy.