Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

My Week In Media: Hairy Biker Simon King

Jamie Merrill
Monday 18 August 2008 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Last week I read...

A lot about Georgia. It's an awful situation but what really brought it home to me was a photograph I saw, which ran in The Guardian and the Daily Mail, of a woman old enough to be somebody's grandmother, sitting totally distraught in the rubble of what I assume used to be her home. It just looked like her whole life had disappeared. In terms of the skill of the photography it was just remarkable. It really struck Dave (the other Hairy Biker) and I by capturing the reality and humanity of the violence. I was pleased to see that the quality papers took notice of the collateral damage and the human misery which that level of conflict causes.

Last week I watched...

Dragons' Den. I don't normally follow it, its cringe factor is enormous, but I stumbled upon it when a poor fellow, who came up with an alternative to cable ties, had to go out in front of James Caan, pictured, and the rest of the dragons. What struck me about it first of all was that he had to give away 50 per cent of his equity, which is a bit of a bummer. And the second thing was that it is these smug businessmen who bring out the worst in everybody's character. But it's totally compelling television. Other than that, Dave and I are on the road at lot at the moment so have been trying to keep up to date via the BBC World Service.

L ast week I listened to...

The World This Weekend on Radio 4. I was driving home and there was a really good debate about the UK's policy of building more coal-fired power stations. It was a great debate between the environmental campaigner George Monbiot and Bob Taylor from Eon Generation. It is so depressing that we've actually put in place no meaningful infrastructure to help us stop climate change. And the bottom line of that is if we don't stop climate change we'll have no legacy to leave our children. We'll have wasteland but that's fundamentally it. Radio 4 is one of the few places you can hear a proper debate like that anymore.

Last week I surfed...

For years I've had Reuters news delivered to my mailbox so I checked that out most days last week. Also I watched the Chubby Bunny clips on YouTube. It's sweeping across America and involves stuffing marshmallows in your mouth while saying chubby bunny. The result is unsurprisingly pretty ugly.

Simon King is one half of the Hairy Bikers alongside Dave Myers. Their new show, 'The Hairy Bakers', is on Monday nights at 8.30pm on BBC2

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in