Thinking about when life imitates art...

The other day there was a story on the news about some rich guy, a ‘nob’ (as opposed to a knob), a lord or an earl or something of that ilk, has been made bankrupt and lost his house which has been in his family since the year 900 and something. OK, very sad and all that (I am sure he won’t be homeless and selling The Big Issue – but that’s not the point of this story, and neither is how his family got that house/land in the first place). It is this: After telling us this sorry little tale, the news presenter people went on to say that it was “life imitating ART” – the ART in question being the sitcom “To the Manor Born”, and they showed us a little clip of when Audrey Forbes-Hamilton lost the manor. Apologies if I have got her name wrong – this is something that was on in the 80s I think so I am having to think back quite a long way – I am referring to the character played by Penelope Keith (AKA Margot Leadbetter). Now it comes to something, doesn’t it, when they think we are that thick that we would be totally bemused by the story of someone losing their house until they show us a clip of a sitcom – and – poor confused us – it’s like someone has switched on the little light-bulb above our dense little heads!! “Oh I SEE” we yell at the screen, oblivious to the fact that Nick Owen and Kay Alexander can’t actually hear us!! Now we understand! Honestly – the day we need this sort of clarification is the day we should all start watching Newsround, which is, of course, great!

Stories go a bit like this. (Read slowly – that’s how they talk)
Some children in a school are helping the environment by making their own carrier bags out of old onion skins because they are what grown-ups call bi-o-de-gra-dab-le, that means that they melt away into nothingness after lots and lots of years. Not like the ones you get from your local supermarket which are made of Kryptonite and will kill superman. Some of you have been emailing in your thoughts on this story.
Emily from Dundee says: “I think it’s a very good idea, we should be saving the planet, it’s a nice thing to do.”
Hubert from Doncaster days “It’s silly, we’ve been using Kryptonite bags for years now, and they haven’t done any harm.”
Chris from Wolverhampton says, “I don’t care what my shopping bag is made out of as long as I get my cheese.”
Even Newsround don’t feel the need to tell us it’s “life imitating art” and then go on to show clips of when Sooty and Sweep had a huge falling out over who should put the rubbish out, and then Soo the annoying panda came along and made them all recycle everything, just before Sweep hid under his duvet and Sooty squirted Mr Corbett with his water pistol.

But to go back to the original story. Imagine that bloke and his wife sitting down to have their tea (presumably in some hostel somewhere) and the telly is on, and they have to suffer that clip of “To the Manor Born”. So, now, with every news story I see I am trying to relate it back to some sitcom or soap, so I can sit there and say, “Oh I get it, like on Casualty, when Charlie had that very unconvincing heart attack”.