We all know that American TV is bad. It is just one of those universally-acknowledged truths. But it is soooooo bad.

Firstly, there are the ad breaks. We have an ad break after the credits, 3 or so ad breaks during the program and then another ad break before the final credits. And that is for a half-hour program. I watched the Golden Globes the other night and there were only 2 awards, plus some shots of people schmoozing, between each ad break.

And then there are the ads – which are excrutiatingly bad. In advertising sophistication, as in electrical standards and weights and measures, the Americans are lagging behind the rest of the world. Every now and then you spot one which you hope is going to be ironic. And then you realise it isn’t, and you sink back into depression.

The way I have avoided being sent insane (until now) by this is using our Tivo, which is nothing more or less than a hard disk video recorder. So I wind through the ads and never need to look at them. It has actually become worth delaying watching a program by ten minutes, because then the program on the Tivo is behind the broadcast, and you can wind forward through the ads while you are watching. The sad side effect is that when you end up watching something live for a change, you realise that you’re brain is melting. Like now.