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Work Surface Tension.


What’s with all the impractical tables on TV?

Take the one on 'Sunday Morning Live' (BBC1's Naga Munchetty-fronted Kilroy-style debate show) for example:



Who wants to settle around a three-tiered monstrosity like that? Not content with having a shadow reminiscent of the Olympic rings, its tabletops are nigh-on invisible. I’d be too intimidated to put anything on it, least of all a glass carafe. The breakage potential would be terrifyingly high; lean toward it at your peril.

Then there’s the table in the ident for C4’s Sunday Brunch:



Yet again, we’re faced with a piece of unserviceable furniture; imagine sitting at it with a hangover. Putting anything on it would be terrifying; no-one needs that level of stress between breakfast and lunch.

This isn’t just a problem for the weekend. Every day of the week, Alex Jones and her many-rotating co-presenters interview an array celebrities around this fibreglass eyesore. Imagine trying to get to a magazine stored inside it. I mean seriously: what the fuck?


The Andrew Marr Show is no better:



What’s with the mismatched shapes? I’d be experiencing serious table envy if I were Nick Clegg. Both interviewee and host are also displaying a scant regard for table etiquette: fancy not putting their drinks on coasters.

While there are many contenders for the title of TV's Ugliest Table, nothing beats the one in Frasier.


I thought Kelsey Grammer’s character was meant to have taste?

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