The genius of Evelyn Waugh was his ability to be both moral and malicious, to find joy in just how wicked we really are. Decline and Fall (Fridays, BBC One, 9pm) is an adaptation of his first novel – the story of Paul Pennyfeather, an innocent undone by the selfishness of other people.
Paul had hoped to be a clergyman, but the public shame of a violent debagging at Oxford leaves him with no option but to go into teaching. It’s a fate worse than death. As the novel observes: “Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison.”
