Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

Dirty Business  - I think we all know that we were sold down the river when Thatcher privatised the water companies, and how badly we have been swindled, but I defy anyone to watch this docudrama and not be horrified and seething with fury about just how badly this basic human and environmental need has been managed by everyone involved.  The three part series takes a good look at some tragic human stories of how contaminated water has caused death, illness, and ongoing ecological disaster.  Alongside these, we see the real life data and sleuthing heroes Ashley Smith (David Thewlis) and Peter Hammond (Jason Watkins) digging up the dirt, doing analysis that no-one else was, to show what the companies and regulators had been up to.  Shocking - watch it then write to your MP at the very least, although I feel like getting out the pitchforks and marching down to Thames Water HQ.  Doing a similar job as Mr Bates vs The Post Office last year, this is important telly....

Heated Rivalry - This is a highly enjoyable slow-burn romance between ice hockey players, developing over a 10 year period. Is it any good? ‘I mean, yes, I think so, probably’. There's a lot of snobbery about the romance genre, but this is interesting, not just because of the work itself,  but also the way it has captured the zeitgeist* and pulled together lots of live debates into one place. So, this is a slightly longer essay than usual, feel free to skip past. Firstly, what is this about? This is a Canadian word of mouth success that blew up in the US and Canada before Christmas and left networks around the world  scrambling to get in on the action, arriving in the UK in January. Most of the early noise was about the spicy sex scenes but it settles down into a proper old school yearning romance.  In addition to the character development and recognition of self, which is always central to a solid romance, there are the external pressures of being rival sports personalit...