COMMENT A firefighters’ strike would be bad news. Perhaps a doctors’ strike or a police strike would be even worse. But a Hollywood screenwriters’ strike has failed to send shivers down the spine just yet. Of course, the strike by the Writers Guild of America – prompted by a disagreement over royalty payments – is bad news for all the small businesses that depend on Hollywood to stay afloat. And Jay Leno’s monologues will be missed.
Fundamentally, though, this strike holds no terrors for the British nation, which has survived for more than 30 years on just 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers. We’ll get through this one way or another. In any case, many of us haven’t even finished watching the DVDs of Sex and the City, let alone 24 or Desperate Housewives. Far from being a cause for alarm, the strike may give us an opportunity to catch up.
