i remember there was some tv awards ceremony shortly after langham’s initial arrest, and The Thick Of It were nominated in some category.

they read out the other 5 shows that were nominated to rapturous applause, but the words The Thick Of It were greeted with utter, stony silence, the camera cut to the cast and crew members who looks shocked and deeply embarrassed.

i wonder if any one had clapped whether they would have been bottled out of the room to shrieks of noncelover!

re: rebuilding your career after something like this, i dunno, pete townsend seems to be doing ok by just Pretending It Never Happened, but if you’ve actually done prison time for it the options seem to be move to thailand, or brazen it out as a celebrity nonce, a la Jonathon King.

there is still something that makes me uneasy about sending people to prison for looking at an image on a computer screen though, it is a touch ThoughtCrime, isn’t it? i understand the arguments regarding the corrupting nature of the material and that without a market for it, it wouldn’t exist.

but at the same time, i’ve seen some terrible stuff (none paedophile related, i hurry to add!) on the internet, like russian soldiers being decapitated for instance.

does having viewed that material make me a murderer? should i do prison time for murder?