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ANALYSIS
Travel
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Saturday January 21, 2006
After a week of hot-headed emotion about sex offenders getting jobs in schools, the appearance of a whale so lost in the River Thames that it was swimming through the heart of London provided just the Saturday lift that the papers needed.
A quick glance around the news-stand shows that none of them has missed the opportunity to make the most of the puns either.
Even the cartoonists have had fun, with one comparing the creature to the UK's highly-esteemed deputy prime minister, the ebullient Mr John Prescott MP.
While whales don't make the best radio, they do make good television.
Concerned wildlife experts seemed to have to spend as much of their Friday afternoons keeping waterborne TV crews away from the stressed creature as they did trying to coax it east along the estuary towards the relative freedom of the North Sea.
So telegenic was the London skyline accompanying the majesty of the large mammal that almost perpetual coverage from Sky News spurred one commentator to observe that the channel had become more like a comedy pastiche than the real thing.
The clash of reality and ridicule had to come; that it was provoked by a beast of the deep brings a dimension of natural justice to the irony.
That said, the gothic imperialism of the Palace of Westminster, County Hall and the revolving Eye, the sloping Greater London Authority building, Tower Bridge, even Tate Modern and the concrete solidity of the National Theatre provide too much visual interest for a TV producer not to succumb to such temptation - especially in the context of an animal story too.
Although this morning's tides could, according to one expert interviewed on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, be crucial for the whale's survival, it is really quite surprising that, about 24 hours after first being spotted, the beast hasn't been given a name.
Perhaps, that's the splash - sorry - for tomorrow's Sunday papers.
READERS of Saturday's Financial Times, at least the UK edition, have long been treated, at the back of the weekend section, to the thoughts of Canadian Tyler Brûlé.
This week, Mr Brûlé's new series for television began - on BBC4. His last endeavour - The Desk - a studio-based programme covering the media was not re-commissioned after a first series.
'Brolly', as one columnist dubbed the stubble-bearing globetrotter, was looking for alternative projects. He succeeded in getting a prize commission.
Counter Culture is examining shopping around the world. The first featured Moscow, where the former state store GUM has become the home of designer boutiques satiating the appetites of Russia's mega-rich. The second features Sweden, home of Ikea. Tyler meets flat pack; counting the supercilious grimaces could be fun.
Mr Brûlé's ego featured as much in the first programme as the subject matter.
Long two-shots, set up so Mr Brûlé was slightly more prominent on the right, rather than quicker editing with more traditional over-the-shoulder interview camerawork, or cutaways to the presenter with his head to one side, smiling too insecerely for even a newcomer's first attempt at 'noddies' made the programme a truly cringeworthy experience.
BBC4 continuity and some TV listings referred to Mr Brûlé as a 'brand guru'. Readers of his FT column, and those who have written to the editor about him, are familiar with a style that frequently comes close to merging vanity with conceit.
Counter Culture seemed more a tribute to the 'brand Brûlé' than to the retail industry he set out to document.
For a man who does appear quite charming, especially to the cabin crews on the long-haul flights where he seems to spend so much of his life, a good opportunity has been wasted.
If the next commissioning editor he approaches curbs Mr Brûlé's wanderlust and ego, the result could be fascinating. Alternatively, setting Mr Brûlé the task of documenting psychotherapy for a series called 'The Cult of Ego', or 'I am, therefore I present' could make fascinating, if painful, viewing.
SVEN (GORAN ERIKSSON): Who cares? Who really cares?
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Adam Christie is editor of AsPerceived. The views expressed here are personal.
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