How TV Ruined Your Life

Before he found world wide fame with 'Black Mirror', Charlie Brooker had long been a mainstay of British comedy through his Guardian newspaper columns (later collected in several books) and various TV review shows such as 'Screenwipe' (and the subsequent 'News', 'Games', 'Weekly' and 'Antiviral' wipes) as well as writing for shows like 'Brass Eye' and creating the 'Big Brother' zombie series, 'Dead Set'.

Shown in 2011 and following the Screenwipe format of commentary, clips and skits, 'How TV Ruined Your Life', over 6 episodes on: Fear, The Life Cycle, Aspiration, Love, Progress, Knowledge Brooker explores the ways in which TV programmes twist our expectations and warp reality to serve their own ends.

It isn't as savagely satirical as some of Brooker's work, could probably have done with pruning an episode or two and, 14 years on, feels slightly quaint in an age of micro targeted social media disinformation but it's still a funny, informative and occasionally depressing look at how we got where we are.

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