On Thursday I managed to catch the second half of the two parter 'The town that never retired'. Firstly, that is a misleading title to say the least. I was excited, I envisioned a screen adaptation of  Jose Saramago's Death with Interruptions. I tuned in, anxiously, I don't get to watch very much television and this looked promising.

Then the camera panned. I was greeted with those two, you know them, they both used to sneer and judge on The Apprentice and now only one of them does, the Nick half. Alas, This was a programme with a simple premise, can those very nearly dead still be effective in the work place, the answer was largely, no. Lack of dexterity and speed meant that, sadly, pensioners aren't cut out for manual labour or factory work. But the elderly have kind faces and we must therefore, be incredibly sympathetic towards them. Their work ethic was unquestionably brilliant, just their ability had dwindled. So we the viewer, were forced to watch a generation in decline. Which is of course bitterly sad and a frightening glimpse of the future.


But fear not, those old timers may be over the hill and unable to uncork a bottle of wine, but there is a new generation isn't there? The young ones who are desperate for jobs we all read about all the time. Well Nick and Margaret succeeded in recruiting a great cross-section of the 18-25 year olds that are currently unemployed and not just 5 feckless morons who we would be invited to laugh at in a 'huh, kids these days' kind of way. Wait, no, hang on, that's exactly what the BBC did do, instead of perhaps, using some of the very many graduates currently out of work, eloquent or intelligent young types the likes of which I know exist. I've seen them. Spoken to a few of them, even. So instead, we were forced into comparisons between well spoken, hard working pensioners and idiots (all bar one, the plumber one, he was pretty good). They were utterly, utterly useless and unsympathetic and did not stand one chance of winning any of the viewers over in their hooded coats when compared to those kind wrinkled faces.

The BBC has thereby greatly assisted in confirming far too many Daily Mail assertions about, 'the youth today'.


Joel