Must watch

I'm not sure whether it should serve as a stark warning to all bloggers to lift themselves above the mundane, or as an inspirational text, but George and Weedon Grosmith's Diary Of A Nobody is one of the very few books I re-read on a pretty much annual basis. Its hero, Charles Pooter, has become a byword for pompous self-importance, and his inconsequential banalities masquerading as historically-significant memoirs a model for all manner of books, films and TV programmes. Yesterday's Sunday Times made the point that without this comic masterpiece, you'd have no Basil Fawlty, Reggie Perrin or David Brent (they might have added Captain Mainwaring too), and new literary imitators crop up all the time.
Anyway, on BBC4 tonight there's a programme looking at the men behind the book, followed tomorrow by a dramatisation of the Diary itself. I'll be watching, but really there's no substitute for reading it. The satire works well even now, over a hundred years on, and it's laugh-out-loud funny. Do yourself a favour and buy a copy.