Such is the tedium served up these days, making stark the realisation that the bile and satire of 30 years ago has vanished. Watching such inchoate comedy (I'm not sure it's even stand-up) is like having your leg humped by a glove puppet: it's attention grabbing but without the necessary aggression which is key to the best comedy.
When I look back at my time on Shameless over the last three years, I honestly feel a warmth. The shows spirit, the characters, the writing, the crazy story lines, the constant pushing of boundaries. I am filled with a sense of pride, that I was part of such a groundbreaking iconic show. Like they say..." All good things, come to an end.
Olympic champion Jessica Ennis wore a winning smile on Saturday - as she married her long-term partner at a church in Derbyshire's Peak District. Byst...
So here we are: I'm going to be flying the flag for the United Kingdom at the 58th Eurovision Song Contest this year in Malmo, Sweden. And what's more - I am completely honoured to do it! I have to be honest, I wasn't sure at first - but then it suddenly dawned on me that this is an incredible thing. It's an amazing opportunity to represent your country for doing something you love. In actual fact my husband Robert had represented the UK in the Olympic Games at judo in 1972. So we are two halves of a couple who have both done something for their country. Now that can't be bad!
As the prime minister's only black, working-class advisor moves to a part-time role, amid suggestions he was pushed out by the Etonian clique with which David Cameron has chosen to populate Downing Street, the charges of elitism are only going to get worse. You can be celebrated for writing a hit TV show like Girls even if you get your ethnic mix off-kilter, especially if you take the criticism on the chin and don't duck the issue, but it's far harder when you're running the country.
With the Duchess of Cambridge now in her final trimester, the UK is anticipating the arrival of a new future monarch this July. There has never been a better time to give birth. Really, I'm not just offering that as a platitude, the customs and advice relating to pregnancy and birth in the past make for horrific reading. Of course, the lack of hygiene and gynaecological understanding caused untold suffering but setting mortality rates aside, midwives and the fashionable male accouchers of the past had some strange ideas about what was best for their patients.
So, here's a thought: without the trolls, the internet wouldn't be worth having. No doubt you've heard by now that anonymous commenters who are destroying the web, vicious trolls who are gleefully trampling on the virtual communities that other people have calmly and carefully built from the electronic ground up. And that's where I'd say we have it all wrong. The internet doesn't simply encourage trolls, it thrives precisely because of them.
As early as midway through the first episode we gain an appreciation of whom we are going to collectively despise. It is normally the irritating cretin who takes it upon him/herself to come up with a team name such as 'oblivion' or 'evolve.' Why they feel compelled to come up with such lame post-apocalyptic names is beyond me.