A friend complains about the TV listings: “It’s wall-to-wall Olympics”, he lamented yesterday.

He’s right. I turn to the Radio Times – BBC 1 given over entirely to the Olympics. BBC 4 ditto. Same tomorrow, as far as I can see, and it’s leaked into BBC 2 with the swimming heats at 6pm. On Monday, after a one-and-a-half-hour “Olympic Breakfast” starting at 6am, there’s a break till 1.45pm. Then off we go again and it’s Olympics till 4am Tuesday. the only bit of relief to interrupt this pattern is forced feeding of another kind: EastEnders at 8pm. The excitement promised there isn’t tempting:

“Sharon encourages Grant to talk to Phil, but the two only end up in a bitter argument. Jay and Ben have a heart-to-heart, while Claudette encourages a grieving Pam to visit Paul.”

I don’t know who any of these people are. For all I know they’re in Rio, on a trip paid for by my TV licence fee. I daren’t turn the page to Tuesday. Mind you, in the end it might be less depressing than the news. 

And that’s another thing – it leaks into the news as well: apparently the Russians are going to be banned from the Paralympics. Which means that the most vulnerable and deserving are going to be punished for the crimes of the powerful while the rich and famous get off scot free. No change there then. And they certainly know all about that in Brazil.