Global 24hr news stations, well-resourced and able to bring us in-depth, live coverage of epoch defining moments. Italy, like many other countries, has had its news media shaken ever so slightly over the last couple of years with the introduction of 24hr news channels.

Rai 24, the news flag-ship of state broadcaster specialises in developing news reports that get broadcast to satelite subscribers, and make news headlines across the world, but never get shown on domestic tv – the most infamous example being the report they made on white phosphorous use in the US assault on Fallujah, a report which has been translated into English, but never broadcast (to the best of this monkey’s knowledge) on regular Italian tv.

Sky news has entered the Italian market, and I’ve recently started watching it online – with a vaguely open-mind. Italian news reporting is, generally, of such a poor quality, that Sky almost seemed like incisive reporting.

Then today I was shaken to my senses. While having lunch we were subjected to an interminable broadcast from the commemoration service for that famous-for-being-famous dead blonde. That the channel might devote some time to the service was inevitable, and justified given that many Italians are unhealthily obsessed with the English royal family. That we were subjected to the line by line translation of gems from the common book of prayer, and each and every utterance from all and sundry was not. The broadcast of the two minutes of silence was either the best or most nonsensical piece of this t.v trash.