Crikey, a social worker on telly who actually makes a mistake!

Social workers are angry at the way they have been depicted in the new c4 drama Kiri. ooo, join the club, darlings. Get behind me in the persecuted queue.

Policemen, the judiciary, journalists, anyone unlucky enough to be white, middle- class and posh, estate agents, the rich, the property- owning oldies, pony owners, winter holiday smugs, red trouser-wearers and Brexit supporters are all regularly pummelled, mocked and demonised as beastly by popular dramas. We can’t do anything good or right. Ever.

Sarah lancashire’s frumpy portrayal of social worker Miriam (pictured) depicts her as a slovenly, cardiwearing drunk, even though she cares very, very much about her charges and has a dying dog that farts, which is supposed to be symbolic of something, God knows what.

However, good-hearted Miriam may have made a decision which has resulted in the death of a child. You have to laugh. For once, just once, a social worker is portrayed as something other than a hardpressed saint in a zip-up fleece who never makes a wrong decision — and the profession is up in arms. and that is not all. The plot concerns eponymous Kiri, a black girl who is about to be adopted by a middleclass white couple. But she disappears and is found dead after meeting her violent ex- con birth father. Yes, this is grim viewing, saved only by lancashire being her usual brilliant self. Yet, with two more episodes to go, something tells me that it is the middle- class white poshies who will be found guilty, while the struggling, but noble, black family will be innocent of all charges. Watch this space.