Review of Capital

...that I can't believe a word of this rose - tinted nonsense from our National Broadcaster.The further the BBC moves away from London(to the dismay of many of its employees it would seem)the easier it is for the organisation to portray that city as it would like it to be rather than as it is. It only required a few tarts - with hearts and genial cockneys and we're right back to"Passport to Pimlico" and such fluffy Ealing concoctions that were as true to real London life 60 years ago as "Capital" is today. "Pepys Road"(hey,get the connection?As in Samuel Pepys,the great diarist who told it like it was about in the 17th century?So,our show will tell it like it is about London today...cool..right?)is presented as a microcosm of society as a scriptwriter's wet dream. Full of charming and clever incomers wiping the floor (figuratively speaking) with the miserable,disgruntled,greedy and unpleasant natives (omg can I use that word?). The Authorities are corrupt and brutal,distinctly not cool and there are "ists" of every ilk lurking to disturb this Utopia. It is frantically over - acted,makes its points like a barrel bomb and lacks a sense that a world exists beyond this one street in in SW London. It's sure to be trebles all round in Salford as the Guardianistas lap this nonsense up and at their Hampstead dinner parties swop phone numbers of the "treasured" Polish decorators an au pairs. The fact is "Capital" is "EastEnders" for people who would never dream of watching "Eastenders". It has the same issues,just they're about a hundred grand a year better off which makes it all a bit easier to bear. The danger is that some unsuspecting viewers might actually be encouraged to visit SW London expecting to find a liberal Nirvana. A word to the wise....write to the BBC and ask for your train fare back. A final word on the title ;a wry Irish friend of mine had a go at reading "Das Kapital" completed three chapters and commented that he wouldn't like to live in London. I reckon he would have felt the same as me about "Capital" but I'll never know because he was blown up by some Friends of Jeremy who are now revered as Statesmen in a world that is as foreign to me as Pepys Road.