Presented by Emily Maitlis
In tonight's programme
Whatever we tell you about world affairs and financial collapse there will be a nagging curiosity - deny it if you will - about the return to the BBC of Jonathan Ross. So let's cut to the chase and start there briefly.
As I write, they have just finished recording his show. It apparently begins with an apology and ends with a standing ovation. I won't say more now, but tonight we will take a good look at what this whole episode has done to comedy and to the BBC.
Right, back to financial collapse. The script for the last three months has gone, unwaveringly thus:
Labour: It's global, it's global.
Tories: It's worse here, it's worse here.
Labour: Global. America's in the same mess.
Tories: But we're going to feel it more than anyone else. We never prepared.
Labour: It's global... etc (Da capo...).
So tonight we are placing the question boldly centre stage and asking whether actually, this problem is of Gordon Brown's making. One economist put it like this:
"It's not good enough to fall asleep at the wheel, crash and then say if it hadn't been for the fact you woke up and swerved to avoid the tree it would have been worse."
Is that really fair given how the rest of the world looks right now? We'll debate it tonight.
Meanwhile, Liz MacKean has returned to Dublin, where the recession is biting:
"In Ireland a whole generation has grown up in times of economic prosperity. It was as though if they wanted a job all they had to do was interview a few employers. Now young and old alike are reeling from a series of economic shocks. Desperate measures being considered include cuts in public sector pay. I'm in Dublin to see what happens when you go from boom to bust in less than a year."
Was it a stumble? Was it nerves? Or was it a cynical attempt to derail the entire Obama presidency before he had even become president? We like to give conspiracy theorists their due on this programme. So we will be looking at the taking of the vows and indeed the retaking of the vows. And asking if there are limits to how far the human mind will stretch to interprete what happened there.
Join us at 10.30pm on BBC TWO.
Emily
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