I was once trying to get a television idea commissioned about a subject or issue that I thought was important. So important that I can no longer remember what it was. Whatever it was, the commissioner stayed alert for a minute or two but soon clouded over and demanded: “What is it you’re trying to say?”

“Say? I’m just saying it’s really interesting.”

“And it is,” she conceded. “But you can’t just do a general …” She groped for the right word. “Grope,” she said eventually, firmly. “You can’t just do a general grope around a subject.” She made a kind of rummaging motion with her hands as she said this.

The thing is, what I crave as a listener and viewer is exactly that: a general – basic, simple, idiot’s guide, call it what you will – examination of a story or issue.

I was listening to You Do Not Have to Say Anything on Radio 4. It’s a series of 10 15-minute programmes explaining the workings – also not workings – of the criminal justice system, presented by a defence barrister called Joanna Hardy Susskind. I enjoyed it so much that I found myself wondering how on earth it got commissioned because it amounted to, as my commissioner might........

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