The John Griff Column: A change is on the horizon…

It felt quite apparent on Monday morning that something was changing in the air. In recent weeks we’ve taken to sleeping with the windows wide open and just a sheet on the bed, rather than the duvet. Ella, our young dog who we let sleep on the bed had taken to sleeping on the floor where it was cooler. But on Monday I woke up to find that both Lois and I had pulled the duvet up and over. And Ella was blissfully asleep in between us, her head just south of the pillow. Hmmm… change is coming.

Seasonal change is a constant, although for years I’ve thought that the changes have been getting later and later in the year – effectively moving the seasons further along the line of the calendar. Through climate change, perhaps the impact of change has been somewhat masked – I’m convinced that the kind of winters where ice, frost and snow were regular visitors are now a thing of the past. The jet stream seems to have moved, giving us milder, wetter winters instead. At what point will the card companies drop the stereotyped snowy scenes from their catalogues? Might Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ become an in-joke for forecasters, if it isn’t already? The farmers have been racing to get their harvests in with all the technology and teamwork of a Formula One team – time is money and wet weather can be financially ruinous, so the imperative is obvious. Having good quality and accurate forecasts is essential.

Of course, seasonal change and any drop in temperature brings harvests of a different kind for the power companies. This week there were dire warnings from the forecaster Cornwall Insight - noted and respected for the accuracy of its predictions – that energy prices could shortly be hiked by anything up to 9%. Ofgem is due to announce its latest price cap tomorrow. All of this means that despite rising temperatures and record-breaking levels of energy generation from renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass (which are great for reducing greenhouse gas emissions), we’re still going to be spending more to heat our houses by smaller increments than used to be the case when we were all a lot younger. Will we see the energy companies making eye-wateringly high profits again? Time, and the government’s reaction will both tell, but now might be the time to invest in some knitwear at unseasonably low prices. Action against draughts and heat loss might prove to be a very sound investment in the coming few months, particularly if energy prices push inflation up and take the Bank of England’s interest rates with it. I just hope that in the rises (and they will be multiple before we reach Spring 2025) we’re not lining the pockets of one Vladimir Putin or his war machine by being his clients.

Beyond things meteorological, what else might be coming with the change in the season? The TV and media companies are certainly gearing up, but I just wonder if they might have greater competition than they have had in the past. I long recall my parents getting quite excited about new series coming along - but in those days there were just 3 TV stations, Channels 4 and 5 hadn’t been established and the internet hadn’t been invented. Television was the opiate of the masses and conversations surrounding the plot lines of Crossroads and Corrie would dominate the factories and offices of millions on a day-to-day basis, such was its power. Being a light entertainment TV star then brought real fame with acts like Dick Emery, Mike Yarwood, Dave Allen and Morecambe and Wise pulling in the kinds of viewing figures that schedulers these days could only dream of. The same might be said of the British music charts, where sales then to get into the top 10 and above had to be stratospheric. These days, the bar is woefully low by comparison.

Now, the competition is multiplying and in addition to the Netflixes, Amazon Primes, Skys and Disneys of this world, an increasing number of people seem to be turning to YouTube to find entertainment, even if it does come with annoyingly frequent and disruptive adverts. It’s been around for a long time, but I’ve been surprised to find friends of mine saying how substantially their consumption of it has changed. I see their point – the BBC seems besotted with depressing the nation at every turn, either through the ‘gritty reality’ of it’s Eastenders plotlines (are we meant to feel grateful for comparative brightness of our own lives when the drumbeats sound at the end of each episode?) or the relentless serving up of police drama after police drama? At ITV, C4 & C5 we apparently crave the land of reality, Love Island, IACGMOOH, BGT et al. Where is the innovation, the entertainment and the point of difference though ? At YouTube there is a refreshing spectrum of content, much of it made by real people and about topics that interest them, as well as an increasing range of quality corporate and specialist interest content – there are even full-scale movies which offer true alternatives and truly entertain. Who cares if some of it is a touch low-rent or niche – if you don’t like it, hit refresh and start surfing again. Are the days of mainstream television over? Now, it’s about narrow-casting, rather than broad-casting, and not just in TV either. Lois and I finally watched ‘Barbie’ last weekend. Trailed as a 5 star offering, I could see why it won the accolades and awards that it did. The truly thought-provoking saccharine-soaked ironies contrasting the ‘real’ world with ‘Barbieworld’ will hold good for some time, I think.

One to keep warm with as the temperatures start to drop? Sure – just get ready to layer up those costumes when they do…