Likewise, to the hysterical members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, USA, it's a label applicable not just to homosexuals. People who tolerate gays are 'fags'. Jews are 'fags'. The other Christian churches are 'fag' churches.

America is a 'fag' nation because it puts up with gays. Even a bemused (is he ever anything but? ) Louis Theroux, by this twisted logic system ("fag enabler" = 'fag'), is one. This is the kind of stuff Theroux had to face in his investigation into The Most Hated Family In America.

The family of the title were the Phelps clan, who make up most of Westboro's members. Your first impression of the Phelpses was that they looked normal; the female members even looked slightly counter-culture. Once any of them opened their mouths, though, it got scary. The Westboro doctrine's central tenet is that "God hates fags", and the church has achieved infamy in the US for decreeing that 9/11 and the Iraq disaster was God's revenge on America for treating gays as normal human beings. It gets its message across mainly by picketing the funerals of soldiers with a variety of excitable banners. Theroux was shown around the church's banner factory, and the more placards he was shown, the more ridiculous and even funny they seemed.

Some of them . . . "Liz Taylor, Fag Lover", and the one with Princess Diana on it that said, "Royal Whore, Fag Enabler" . . .

even had a real pop-art, camp quality.

Later Theroux questioned a Westboro member about the church's beliefs. The man said the church was the only Christian sect willing to state "the elephant in the room" that a homo-friendly world is going to hell. Too bad Theroux never stated the actual elephant in room . . . that pathological homophobes are usually repressing something deep within. I really thought the show was building to the point when Theroux would hit one of the Phelpses with the question, "Are you a fag?" It wasn't to be. After the credits, a web address, where you could find out "what Louis really thought of the Phelpses", was flashed up. Why couldn't he have said it all on the show?

From America's loony heartlands to England's centre of gravity now, as The Thick Of It's Chris Addison set off on The Hunt for Middle England. He first tried to find it by balancing a cardboard cut-out map of Britain on the tip of a biro . . . but, of course, what he was finding was the heart of Britain, not England.

As he acknowledged too, Middle England isn't a point, or a place.

It's. . . well, its definition is elusive, as this entertaining ramble along John Bull's leafier lanes demonstrated.

As with the concept of 'irony', everyone knows what Middle England is, but no-one's able to articulate it. People tend to think it's synonymous with conservatism, even Conservatism, although, as Addison said, during the John Major years the Tories lost their exclusive claim to Middle England. This statement was illustrated with footage of Major raising a pint of Guinness . . . as if to subliminally make the point that it took the only Tory prime minister ever to give a damn about Irish affairs to lose the support of 'Appalled, Surbiton'.

And by extension, that Middle England is a country very far away from Old Ireland.

But where, or rather what, exactly is it? It's probably nothing, the show concluded.

Really, Middle England's just an ideal, a Venn diagram with certain words and phrases in it.

To this pool, the "father of geodemographics" Richard Webber contributed "owner-occupiers", "have bolts on front door", "very concerned about privacy" and "the fact that I might have any information about them on my computer [which he did] they'd find very disturbing". Social commentator Peter York chipped in with "concerned about hedgerow birds". Author Jilly Cooper . . . who's credited with coining the term 'Middle England' . . . offered "worthy", "smug" and "Germaine Greer frightens the life out of them". Of course, everyone knew all that before, vaguely.

For a while there a few years ago, it looked like the original leftie comic, Ben Elton, had become a Middle Englander, what with his presenting the Royal Variety Performance and writing musicals with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now he's back sounding off about big issues on Get A Grip. And it's clear his agitmojo is lost forever. The low point was when, after yet another limp pop at something or other, he felt compelled to go, "That's satire!"

It reminded me of when Mike Yarwood used to spit out his false teeth at the end of his tame impressions show and utter, "It's only me." Sad, sad, sad.

Reviewed Louis Theroux:

The Most Hated Family in America Sunday, BBC2
The Hunt For Middle England Monday, BB2
Get A Grip UTV, Wednesday