At a party last week, I was told that my viewing habits are not in keeping with those of my peer group. I was talking about watching programmes when they are on, according to the TV guide, using an actual television, which sits in the corner of my living room, and my friends seemed confused by this.
I started to wonder if I was doing it wrong. I had a sudden realisation that perhaps, with this cold snap and self-imposed January puritanism and all the rest of it, I might have been watching more than normal, a fact confirmed when I started to reel off the afternoon’s quiz shows, in scheduled order, Tipping Point first.
Almost everyone I know uses their laptop instead and they watch what they want, when they want to. Sadly for them, this means they lack a good working knowledge of Tipping Point’s intricate lingo.
Our viewing habits are increasingly fractured, but they still say something about who we are, unless, of course, you’re the kind of person who thinks television is a waste of time and that is perfectly fine, if incorrect.
Ruth Langsford, who is one of the hosts of ITV’s This Morning with her husband, Eamonn Holmes, told the Radio Times last week that the couple rarely, if ever, watch television together. They have separate rooms for viewing. He likes documentaries and she likes soaps –and he likes to talk when shows are on: “He wants to discuss everything and will keep pausing the programme,” she said.
Holmes fired back an explanation of his own. “The thing is, if I don’t do that and we’re watching something like Killing Eve, at the end Ruth will just say, ‘Well, I didn’t understand that.’” They have been married for more than 20 years and, reading that, I felt as if I had known them for the duration of it.
It’s so easy these days to devise your own schedule that it’s no wonder people do so. But I love watching television in company. My girlfriend is a chatterer, like Holmes, and yes, sometimes, that does call for a pointed pause while she asks: “Why is he doing that?”, when the answer is always: “I think they’re going to tell us”, but, still, it’s much nicer to talk about something you’ve seen together than to finish a series by yourself.
Alone, we are all watching Tipping Point in the middle of the afternoon; together, the possibilities are endless.
Richard E Grant’s still crazy about Streisand after all these years
Until last week, it was difficult to choose what the best thing about Richard E Grant’s first Oscar nomination was, at the age of 61, because so much about it was lovely. He is clearly thrilled, for a start, which makes a refreshing change from the usual I’m-just-happy-to-be-here faux humility. He’s up for best supporting actor for the excellent Can You Ever Forgive Me? and, along with Melissa McCarthy, is drawing more attention to a film that genuinely deserves it. In it, Grant once again shows off his uncanny ability to act drunk, despite being famously allergic to alcohol and teetotal, which, given that Withnail and I made his name, is a bit like finding out that John Wayne couldn’t ride.
But then the best thing about it made itself plain. Grant posted a picture of himself outside the gates of Barbra Streisand’s house in California, alongside a letter he had written to her when he was 14. “I read in the paper that you were feeling very tired and pressurised by your fame and failed romance with Mr Ryan O’Neal,” he wrote, wonderfully. “I would like to offer you a two-week holiday, or longer, at our house...” After 47 years, Streisand replied, congratulating him on the Oscar nod. “Look at u now,” she said, though whether she takes him up on the holiday may well remain behind closed channelsof communication.
I loved this story, for its fairytale charm (surely it can be beefed up into a screenplay or a BBC2 special: When Barbra Met Richard) and because Grant is so proud to be a fan, even now. He cried when his daughter told him Streisand had replied. It’s all so delightfully uncynical and truly heartwarming.
Ed Sheeran’s giving voice to musical youth
Astudy by the charity Youth Music has suggested that music has a considerable role to play in children’s wellbeing. The survey of seven- to 17-year-olds shows music tops the list of hobbies, equal to gaming and ahead of sport, drama and dance. For those saddened by the public-school-ification of pop, there were intriguing findings on students from lower income backgrounds, who are less likely to see live music but significantly more likely to describe themselves as musical, and take part in musical activities. (Though the Musicians’ Union says they are much less likely to have access to formal training.)
The Youth Music study also listed the three most popular acts: Little Mix, Stormzy and Ed Sheeran. Last September, Sheeran wrote about cuts to music teaching. “I benefited hugely from state school music, as I’m sure many other musicians have,” he posted on Instagram.
“If you keep cutting the funding for arts you’re going to be damaging one of Britain’s best and most lucrative exports.”
Of those surveyed by Youth Music, 85% said that music made them happy. It’s vital that every child from every background continues to have that option.
• Rebecca Nicholson is an Observer columnist
