Tuesday

I turned over to ITV1 at 11pm last night to watch Die Hard 2 - brilliantly, the channel have been showing the prequels in the run up to the release of the fourth film. The credits began. A Renny Harlin film. Yes, that was right, but something was wrong. I didn't remember a helicopter in the movie. And where was the Christmas music? Then confirmation came: 'Starring Sylvester Stallone'. Something had gone horribly askew. Everything I read said Die Hard 2, but I was clearly watching Cliffhanger. Were ITV incompetent enough to put the wrong film on? Then came the second realisation: they'd cancelled Die Hard 2 because it involved a terrorist attack at an airport. I was infuriated. The idea that a film made fifteen years ago might upset people today because its events are similar is absurd. No one was even hurt in the Glasgow attack. ITV themselves probably weren't concerned. It seems they were worried about putting the film on in case they got complaints that they were being insensitive. It was the general atmosphere of censure and conservative reactionism (fuelled mainly by the Daily Mail) that must have made them do the swap. It's terribly annoying. Does anyone have it on DVD?