Last night

After the curry I'd rescued from the freezer, I watched all twelve half-hour episodes of a television adaptation of Oliver Twist. It was really very good. What I hadn't previously realised was that it is in part an indictment of the 1834 Poor Laws. There's one poignant scene where the workhouse governors are stuffing their faces on a roast dinner, while the workhouse children file past them to be given a ladle-full of gruel. There is another scene where Matron tells the governors about the appallingly hard work that the kids are set to, and the priest comments that poverty should not be an excuse for idleness. So much for Christian charity. Bed after midnight.