the one show

...is the best programme on the TV at the moment. I am trying to read Ian Bradbry's Believing in Britain at the moment (I say trying because I am finding it at once frustrating and fascinating - the jury is out) in it Bradbury discusses the nature of Britishness and points out characteristics and expressions of what he perceives to be British identity. Could the One Show be the ultimate expression of popular Britishness, the latest way in which the BBC attempts to catch the nation's common concerns? Even the title of the show (the BBC are good at this sort of thing) offers a subtle play on meaning - could it be a call for national unity, a definitive declaration of a nations oneness, a demonstration of our collective togetherness, or just simply the name of a show that is on BBC1?

I just love it. Like its grandparent - Nationwide - it comes to us from a television world in the middle of the country. Adrian Chiles' Birmingham accent comforts us into the middle of our land. The pivotal point of the nation. The axis around which we operate. The presenters are a gleeful mix of people from all over the country. The popular news items come to us from places some of us had forgotten existed. Unless a train disaster, flood, foot and mouth epidemic or the like happens we can forget that ordinary people get on with their lives concerned with the size of their cats, the urban fox, the 'wisdom of crowds', were the highest village is, jousting and the Pitou donkey (all items featured on this week's show). But the One Show is helping us to remember that we exist in community and that our small concerns can be the interests of many.





I love Adrian Chiles. Somehow he manages to mix respect with derision in equal measure and still maintain a hapless authority. His 'I'll fit in anywhere' down to earth look is complimented by Myleene Klass' (a Dickensian name if there ever was one) glitzy glamour. Oh and Myleene is pregnant you know!!!!

If you haven't given it a go please do. My only quibble (which I have informed the BBC about) is the strange coffee table that looks like an exposed rib cage. It really puts me off. But, as they say, nothing is perfect.