jonathan meades : magnetic north. tv rarely produces anything as stimulating as a jonathan meades documentary. any of them. last night’s giddy ride in search of ‘north’ ranged from inebriation as essential climate coping mechanism to the secularisation of religion embodied by reformation church-stripping via dogging as metaphor for heaven and hell. wonderful. but then anything that debunks the myth of ’south’ is good by me.

one gripe though - in the programme southwold was quoted as the first english seaside resort. tut-tut, mr meades. that accolade does belongs to somewhere beginning with an ’s’, but it’s definitely in the north of england.