Newswipe returns!

A heads up to everyone that Newswipe (with Charlie Brooker) is back on the oft ignored BBC4. Its regular slot is 10:30pm on a Tuesday, but of course the iplayer should enable you to ignore such things as schedules. Move quick for the first episode though, as it falls off the iplayer's database sometime on Friday.

So what is Newswipe, and why am I bothering to tell you about it?

Basically the show is just Charlie Brooker bitching about how poor news coverage is these days. The first episode dealt with the constant bubble of fear that news coverage seems to provide. The most recent episode covers filler... What on earth to do on a slow news day?

The format is pretty straightforward too, most of the show is Charlie talking, interspersed with clips from news stations that prove his point. There is a guest poet in Tim Key, an 'american correspondant' (whos name eludes me) who sips whiskey and offers polemic that is often right on the money and a guest speaker who deals with the topic of the day in a far more serious light.

So, watch it, it's simultaneously shocking, thought-provoking and hilarious, even when it goes a little post-modern. Oh and come back and thank me if you enjoyed it :)