It was one of my great maturing moments as a young man: the first time I sat down and watched Lumet and Chayefsky's Network. As the years go by, it gets more and more spookily prophetic. (And for me, more moving: William Holden, that dogged, craggy empiricist, so reminds me of my late father.)
But I'm going to spare you a lengthy exposition for the moment - though believe me, it's coming - and proceed by YouTube montage, to make my case for its continuing relevance.
Firstly the great Howard Beale going mad as hell (as Faye Dunaway's cash register visibly rings):
And here's his 2009 UK inheritor, Noel Edmonds, on his "Noel's HQ" show on SKY1:
But here's what you really want Noel to say:
And of course, the cameras keep rolling...
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