Hello! I am a writer for various newspapers and magazines, mostly the Guardian and the Observer. This is a weekly TV zine. Thanks for reading it. If you don't subscribe already, sign up and you'll get TV chat and recommendations in your inbox on Fridays (usually).
I know the Zapper is traditionally an upbeat newsletter, but this week leaves me with no other choice but to get serious. I finally feel able to acknowledge my distress, and perhaps in sharing the burden of my upbringing, we might begin to process this terrible trauma together.
Like Rishi Sunak, I went without Sky TV as a child.
No, don't stop me. It's time I got this out in the open. It's painful to type these words. Please don't call me brave. This is bigger than me. I refuse to be ashamed any longer. Picture, if you will, if you feel strong enough, the following conversation. It's the 1990s, somewhere in the north of Lincolnshire, and I am about 10 years old.
"Mum, can we have Sky?"
"No."
It hurts, even now. But I was resilien…
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