Years ago when I was studying for an MA the tutor was keen on primitive Swedish cinema, Russian silents and the problematics of the French nouvelle vague. Anyone wanting to examine Carry On films, or Hammer schlock or look at tv ads seriously met resistance which was in the end, snobbery.

Now I enjoy a Victor Sjostrom silent or Nikolai Larin as much as the next man but the faculties for criticism and pleasure are the same for both. The folk argument is stuck at the same stage of cod purity dressed up as taste. Folk has never had its reformation.