I believe the title bestowed upon David was the greatest living CULTURAL icon, which immediately throws up the problems of these overblown titles being attached to phone-in popularity polls. Sir David Attenborough is a great cultural icon not only for his extensive and exemplary work in the field of natural history television, but also for his wide-ranging committment to great broadcasting in general. It should not be forgotten that he did excellent service as Controller of BBC2 from 1965 to 1969 – among the programmes he commissioned were “Match of the Day”, “The Ascent of Man”, “The Likely Lads” and “The Old Grey Whistle Test” which demonstrates a pretty broad and egalitarian cultural viewpoint.

I don’t dispute the result, which I think is just and well-deserved. But look at the miserable lightweights that made the finals with him. It was hardly fitting competition, was it? I can see Maccer and Michael Caine being there, with Alan Bennett creeping in at the lower levels. But it’s hard to see how most of the rest would appear in any list that made an objective comparison of these people’s relative cultural contribution. But then, when the Culture Show dumbed down by putting a vacancy like Laurene Laverne in as a permanent host, nonentities like Morrissey and Kate Moss were always going to get far more attention than they ever truly deserved. I mean really, where is Kate Moss’s comparable body of work? And, while enjoying many of Morrissey’s momentary successes, one can hardly say he’s had a similar cultural impact to the likes of McCartney or Bowie.