Although he seemed to spend his whole life criticising the efforts of others, I suppose he had cottoned on early to the idea that to make a living as a tv reviewer he had to be totally scathing in his critiques.

‘Not too bad’ or ‘Okay’ wouldn’t sell papers and get him a commission, so arguably he was the one dumbing down, by going straight for the cheap insults every time. I can remember ‘proper’ tv reviewers like Richard Last of The Daily Telegraph, who I’m sure would have considered Shulman to be the ‘Crossroads of tv reviewers’ (very much at the low end of the market).