Simon Hoggart

Breathless approach

Britain's Lost World (BBC1); How the West Was Lost (BBC4); Last of the Dambusters (Five); Dickens's Secret Lover (Channel 4)

issue 21 June 2008

St Kilda, a set of islands off the coast of Scotland uninhabited for 78 years except by around a million seabirds. Suddenly the BBC sends a crack team of exclaimers to this remote and beautiful place. ‘Amazing!’ they cry. ‘Fantastic!’, ‘stunning!’, ‘great!’, ‘breathtaking!’, ‘spectacular!’ Now and again the team try to dredge from their psyches longer phrases, entire formed thoughts.

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