Gearing up for my fourth paternity leave, I knew the drill. For the older kids: batch-cooked meals, ready in the freezer. For the newborn: all the baby stuff down from the loft. For my wife: whatever the heck the heroic matriarch wanted. And for dad? A ready supply of films for those long solo night-shifts. 

Paternity leave nighttime viewing has but one purpose: stay awake. Specifically, stay awake whilst sitting as still as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping newborn on your chest. As such, there’s no point making grand designs to watch the five-star, high-brow things that you’ve been meaning to watch for goodness knows how long simply because you feel you ought to. Theoretically, I will really enjoy the critically acclaimed Shogun on Disney . But when a man is trying to give the marvellous mother of his children all the rest he can, he has to follow his gut to make it through until morning. A man wants what a man wants. 

Sandi Toksvig’s war on Wikipedia

Why Tom Cruise’s Digger flopped at the box office

Burnham’s Brexit babblings have already backfired

And so where did my gut take me? Meandering, is where. I kicked off with........

© The Spectator