[Andy McDandy]

I just don't get his obsession with clocks.

Oh, and "alternative comedy" has been with us for 40 years. The gap between the opening of the Comedy Store and today is longer than that moment and back to the end of the war. He really doesn't need the air quotes.

[youngian]

The anti-refugee xenophobia in Poirot is clearly about the present (as is most historical drama and sci-fi). And that’s what is bugging Hitchens and other right wing columnists who have made similar comments. Hitchens is not one for banging on about refugees and immigration (one area of modern life he’s not hysterical about) but if you lie down with dogs.

[Boiler]

Hmmm. CGI trains and indeed, an American whistle in the opening scene. Errr.... no. Still, better than the wooden engine used in The Edge Of Darkness.... (and no, we're not talking Toby the Tram Engine here.)

[Andy McDandy]

All drama reflects the age it's produced in, as much as the one it depicts.

Hence in "Victoria", the legendary reactionary, paranoid bigot being depicted as a lovely young gel with surprisingly modern opinions. Because, you know why? We need to connect with the protagonist on some level.

[mr angry manchester]

Hmmm. CGI trains and indeed, an American whistle in the opening scene. Errr.... no. Still, better than the wooden engine used in The Edge Of Darkness.... (and no, we're not talking Toby the Tram Engine here.)

Or BR mark 1 coaches in stuff set in the 1930s

[The Weeping Angel]

This isn't the most convincing excuse Peter.

[The Weeping Angel]

Then there's this obnoxious tit.

https://niallthinksandwrites.blogspot.c ... urder.html

As a Good Modern Person, whose political and cultural views I suspect I could predict almost in their entirety, Phelps is obsessed with demonstrating that the past was a hideous, terrible place, and that any ideas we might have about the merits of Old Britain are mere silly nostalgia. She has tweeted that she has a “horror of heritage, hagiographic adaptations”, by which I think she means any adaptation which doesn’t dwell incessantly on the seedy underbelly of human life. There was a half-hearted motif about the rise of the BUF, clearly intended to allude to Britain’s Post-Brexit Descent Into Fascism. Poirot was given a preachy line about the awfulness of nostalgia (no other character is given a chance to respond, naturally). The inclusion of a joyless and narratively ridiculous sex scene, and references to abortion and prostitution, all had a strong feel of conscious, deliberate desecration, like an angsty teenager scribbling swearwords in a family Bible. Misery loves company. Those who cannot conceive of any artistic vision beyond the stark, grimy realism of modernity, obsessed with ambiguity and antagonism and the ugliness supposedly underlying everything, seek to deface the works of the past which propose something cleaner and more hopeful.

There was no positive artistic vision here, merely a determination to spoil and undermine and shock. This was not an interpretation of Christie’s novel but an anti-interpretation. I’m not actually that surprised by this as Phelps completely failed to understand the point of And Then There Were None. She tweeted in response to criticism of The ABC Murders that she believes that classic authors “need their bones rattling”. To me this sounds rather like a rationalisation for using the big name and clever plot ideas of illustrious predecessors to increase one’s own prominence and gain a ready-made platform for agitprop.

[Biggus Robbus]

Hitchens is still a shitbag.

If he ever decides to come here to debate I would be glad to make my case.

[Andy McDandy]

Thanks for the searing insight.

[Biggus Robbus]

Haha.

Yup I see him on twitter however his habit of picking on the weaker commentators and ignoring valid comments is rather pathetic.

[Biggus Robbus]

Oh the cannabis thing.

If you bang on about "objective" evidence for ADHD/ADD and addiction at least accept there is no "objective" evidence that cannabis causes violence.

Unless you want to look like a walking contradiction of a cunt who would not understand logic if it bit him in the arse.

I mean you don't like people smoking cannabis I get it. However holding illogical views is by far a bigger driver of violence however I would never impinge on your freedom to be stupid so leave is medical marijuana users alone you piece of lying shit.

[Big Arnold]

PETER HITCHENS You have been warned: The Thought Police are coming

But the truth is that they stopped the event because they don't like my opinions. That proves they cannot be trusted with freedom of speech.

GlynGlyn, Maidstone, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago

What happened to critical analysis at university and debate!
+340
-10

What happened to critical analysis in the SYB comments? Ah.

The comments below have been moderated in advance

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... oming.html

Edit. All of the comments have gone.

Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.

Bollocks. You aren't sorry at all.

[Watchman]

I was wondering why they had suddenly started allowing comments on his articles

[Biggus Robbus]

Well I agreed he may have had a point until that.

He may want to correct that.

[Big Arnold]

PETER HITCHENS: The real cause of knife crime? It's hidden in a fog of cannabis smoke

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... smoke.html

Apparently cannabis was only discovered a couple of years ago.