When Bankers Were Good

Very good programme on BBC2 last night, Ian Hislop's When Bankers Were Good. And it had twice the audience of Jamie Oliver's latest show in the same slot on Channel Four. Always refreshing to see audiences choose something of substance over yet another bloody cookery show fronted by one of the most annoying men in the universe.

Bankers' reputations “have fallen below that of estate agents or even journalists" quipped Hislop, who argued that they had much to learn from their Victorian predecessors. The Private Eye head honcho took a look at such philanthropic Victorians as the Gurneys, a banking family of Quakers, Angela Burdett-Coutts, who was a sucker for a good cause, including the British Goat Society and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (aka the lady on the back of the fiver).

Thoughtful, witty stuff and Hislop made for an amiable host. If you missed it, you can catch it here.