Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976) is a brilliant — and remarkably prescient — satire on an immoral media: a deeply cynical corporate world and its ruthless pursuit of ratings. Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Robert Duvall star. A fantastic film: it’s a buy.

We spent yesterday evening watching Inside the Manosphere (2026), Louis Theroux’s trendy Netflix documentary. What struck me most about these influencers — ghastly as they are — is how it’s really all about the money. I’m not even sure if they actually believe in all the unsavoury, brain-dead conspiracy theory bollocks they’re spouting. They’re shock jocks. Say something outrageous, get God knows how many likes, and kerching, there’s another x thousand bucks into your crypto account. Or a radioactive Lambo, bought on hire purchase. They’re salesmen. Flogging crap to insecure adolescent boys, impressionable men down on their luck, who seem to lap it all up. This makes Sidney Lumet’s Network (1976) remarkably prescient. A film made before the horror of reality television, before Jerry Springer (1991-2018) and all that jazz: obese, dysfunctional people screaming abuse at each other, tattooed weirdos married to their goats. Nothing like sleeping with the father-in-law, is there? Or lopping off your meat and two veg: “My brain just kept saying, 'Get rid of them.’”Gladitorial entertainment for the masses…