MalaPopulisms: Death cabs for duties

The BBC has demoted the likes of Prince Harry and Barack Obama to the ranks of not being worthy of the newsflash treatment on their respective demises: continuous biographical footage, endless taking heads, black suits and ties, sombre music, ticker tape news updates.

But just wait until someone off the A-List gets assassinated or dies in unusual circumstances. Love of prurient gossip and morbid curiosity would get the better of the couch-potato tendency to gawp at third-party soaps or inconsequential sport, most of which are repeats anyway.

Did Lord Mountbatten's murder merit a newsflash? The Ronald Reagan assassination attempt? The death of John Lennon? The demise of George Best?

And who would make it on to the top mortuary table for the other channels?

ITV