Tyler Brûlé, whose dad never did play “soccer,” hence was never “a soccer star,” will host a television program. Amy Larocca managed to get at least this detail right. To quote one of New York’s atrocious print-hostile pages:
It’s a weekly hour of what Brûlé describes as “gentle, good, informative viewing.” […] The show will feature magazine-style reports from Monocle’s correspondents that are unhurried in tone…. “I hope it will be a return to more elegant television.”
Brûlé TV as a brand is familiar to a small number of viewers of BBC Four and Newsworld circa 2005, when Brûlé hosted a current-affairs chat show entitled The Desk. (BBC still has a homepage for the show!)
It was known mainly for the natural materials used to construct its set. (No “cheap veneers and varnishes.”) I recall (and just looked up and verified) brief coverage by Antonia Zerbisias in the Toronto Star; I also remember a TV segment, perhaps on MediaTelevision, in which the show’s host and Brûlé agreed the set smelled nice.
I taped and watched The Desk every week while doing the ironing. Its tone was as dull as Monocle’s is; Wallpaper<asterisk>’s verve had long since dissipated, it seemed.
I do hope the program will be an improvement on the glorified slideshows of the Monocle video podcast. One of the upstart news networks, perhaps BNN, could carry it here, but of course won’t.