Delighted to see a replica Viking longboat

being built. Great report about it in The Guardian here, it looks a terrific project run by a nation proud of its exploring, seafaring past. The BBC are making a documentary about it: a Danish replica boat sailing to Ireland. That'll be the same British Broadcasting Corporation who don't think a British built replica of a British built ship that circumnavigated the world under the command of a British captain with a brave mostly British crew, with a British genius on board who developed a theory that changed the world - is worthy of a TV programme or two*. Built to celebrate Darwin's 200th anniversary, sailing round the world in his wake crewed by young British students, around Cape Horn, to the Galapagos, across oceans, with young people laying aloft in storms, doing shore expeditions in the Andes in Darwin's footsteps and carrying out cutting edge science? No, no interest, no drama there. Let's have another garden makeover show!

Excuse me while I go outside and scream about the self-loathing of the British.

*I suspect they will when we start bolting planks together. The question is, will we have signed deals with other broadcasters first? It's a small dockyard and a small boat, which they may literally miss.

Horned helmet tip: Richard Carter