As Thursday has long been the new Friday and the only night that isn't the weekend is actually Tuesday, you may be a bit hungover today.
Of course, you may not. You may be a responsible sort who doesn't get drunk any more and if you do, it's on fine red wine, on the occasional Saturday night. If this is you, move along to Comment is Free.
But for the sake of argument, let us imagine that you are hungover. And so we don't enrage the CBI with the subject of working hours and money lost to hangovers, let us also imagine that it's the weekend. What is your choice of hangover TV?
You can, of course, sing the praises of T4. After all, it has been deliberately designed to appeal to those who have been out wilfully killing brain cells. Similarly, those of advancing years can explain to me the appeal of Saturday Kitchen and/or Something for the Weekend. And there's undoubtedly something soothing about soap omnibuses. (It must be all the shouting.)
But is there anything televisual that, along with a big bowl of tomato soup, some Jaffa Cakes (no, not together) and a duvet swirled around you in the manner of a Walnut Whip, makes a hangover bearable? Heavens, is there any TV experience that makes a hangover pleasurable?
As I've said before, it's got to the point where I've now seen pretty much every Law & Order: SVU other than the new season-nine stuff on a Sunday night – so I must now find other comfort when I am feeling a bit worse for wear. Veronica Mars, stashed on my Sky Plus is always good to dip in and out of, as is 30 Rock, which I watch over and over and over and over. (Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal, in fact.)
Midsomer Murders has a soporific solace to it, as does Miss Marple: the Joan Hickson years. You can fall asleep during both and hardly miss anything. In a quick straw poll in the office here, responses I've had included Seinfeld and "a made for TV movie, involving a snatched/swapped-at-birth baby, starring Victoria Principal." (Not as the baby, one assumes).
So with the weekend nearly upon us, bringing its law of drinking-to-excess, share with me your hangover TV favourites.
