Merchant bowls a Googly
ARE you one of life’s second-screeners? I suspect not; you don’t really strike me as the type. Please take that as the compliment it’s intended to be. Second-screening is the name given to surfing the internet while watching TV.
If you want my opinion, which I’m assuming you must do to some extent or else you’d have turned the page by now, it’s the behaviour of someone with a depressingly low attention span. Or an indication, I suppose, that the programme they’re watching is dreadful. Or possibly both.
But I must confess I engaged in a little second-screening of my own while watching episode six of THE OUTLAWS (BBC1, 9pm), which sadly brings Stephen Merchant’s fine comedy-drama to an end. I couldn’t help myself.
Five minutes in, one of the characters, Rani, is assuring the police that the presence of her father’s van at a crime scene was mere coincidence – and telling them that, statistically, coincidences are more common than they might imagine.
“In 2009 the Bulgarian lottery announced the same six numbers on two consecutive draws,” Rani cites by way of evidence – insisting: “It’s not a lie. Just Google: ‘Bulgarian lottery’.”
So I’m afraid I did. It wasn’t even me she was talking to, but I did it anyway, my curiosity having got the better of me.
I pressed “pause” on my remote and reached for my phone.
My mobile phone, that is. (I’ve tried Googling on my landline and, let me tell you, it’s an utter waste of time.) And yes, sure enough, this Bulgarian lottery thing really did happen.The numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were drawn on September 6, 2009, and again four days later. So there you go.
In my defence, I did this Google search for a good reason. Namely, to satisfy myself that the same care, thought and attention to detail had gone into a relatively throwaway remark as had gone into the rest of the writing on this programme, which has been consistently wonderful.
And yes, of course it had. I didn’t really doubt it but I had to be sure.
Having clarified this information, being the self-disciplined fellow that I am, I was able to put my mobile phone back down and devote my full attention to the programme again.
Once I’d bought myself a couple of Bulgarian lottery tickets, obviously.
Elsewhere tonight, I’m pleased to see that FOOD UNWRAPPED (C4, 8pm) includes a report on why pasta comes in so many different shapes.
It’s something that’s intrigued me for some while, I must admit.
Ever since I bought myself a tin of Alphabetti Spaghetti, in fact, and found it contained a remarkable 26.