If a serious newspaper were to cease printing theatre or movie reviews, there would be outrage on the letters pages, delegations from professional bodies to see the editor and discussions on radio arts shows. The Daily Mail's decision to dispense with overnight TV reviews, though, has passed with hardly a comment. But the reasons for the decision are revealing of a significant shift in TV's relationship with viewers and with newspaper readers.
The British press has always had an uneasy attitude to the box in the corner, almost certainly a legacy of the frequent 1950s prediction that TV news coverage would make print journalism redundant. This led to a tradition of Fleet Street recruiting assassins to review the tube. At least two critics appointed in the 70s are rumoured to have been such wireless lifers that they had to be given a TV before taking up their new duties.
In the mid-1980s, when I was interviewed for a TV-reviewing post on the Times, a friendly deputy whispered as he led me in to meet the top man: "For God's sake, don't let on to him that you like watching that stuff."
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