Clive James became famous by appearing on television but he did his best work writing about it. I picked this up in an idle moment and had difficulty putting it down again. I also couldn’t stop laughing. James was such a funny critic that he often found himself accused of performing stand-up routines rather than writing criticism. In fact, as demonstrated by this selection of reviews first published in the Observer newspaper in the 1970s, he combined wit and critical insight with rare skill.

His often mesmerising prose was suffused with high intelligence and a refreshing lack of snobbery. James subjected himself willingly to the full sanity-threatening diversity of ‘70s British television and found a deranged sort of enlightenment. He was the first television critic to appreciate that its supposed ephemera could be more entertaining and culturally significant than the alleged ‘quality’ output. He knew that the weather forecaster telling you about the coming storm, with the irritatingly chirpy manner and wildly strobing jacket, the hysterical and barely articulate sports commentators, the hapless continuity announcers unable to get through the shortest of links without fluffing, were the true stars of the medium; they were of television in a way that the passing famous thespians and playwrights were not. He was always quick to praise the well-written sitcom or popular drama serial over the latest pedestrian adaptation of a classic novel. Some concluded that James preferred trash to art, but they were mistaken. He just recognised that TV had its own unique strengths and they had little to do with Great Literature or Art.

For those of us of a certain age and background Visions Before Midnight carries an intoxicating Proustian rush as the once famous and now forgotten names of TV personalities and shows roll by. But there’s more to this book than the dubious if seductive pleasure of nostalgia. What happened on the box was a reflection, however distorted, of what was happening outside it and these wittily perceptive pieces are also valuable cultural history. ( )