Peter Rhodes on funny quizzes, an iconic movie and unknown tensions in a troubled community
We are not a United Kingdom so much as a disunited jumble of separate communities which live to their own rules, religions, social media and culture.
When these tribes suddenly erupt, as when stick-wielding Eritreans recently attacked police officers in Camberwell, the rest of us haven't a clue what's going on, and officialdom isn't much help. The Met referred blandly to “tensions in the Eritrean community.” Move on, folks, nothing to see here.
We should be better informed about Eritrea. It is an African dictatorship where military service is compulsory and sometimes endless. Many young men flee to Britain as asylum seekers and about 25,000 Eritreans have settled here. Clearly, if sticks are being waved at our cops, all is not well. An issue for the keen young sleuths at BBC Verify to expose?
I caught an earnest debate on Radio 4 about the difficulty in launching new TV comedies. Inevitably, the conversation drifted to sit-coms such as Ghosts, The Office and Dad's Army. Yet some of the funniest, laugh-out-loud moments on telly come not in dramas but in quiz shows.
