Steven Moffat is being British

[Calleja]

can someone explain what he means in this tweet?

Twitter / Steven Moffat: Don't REALLY disable ITV w ...

Don't REALLY disable ITV with a spanner. Just score it out of listings magazines. And then, yeah, disable it with a spanner.

...the hell?

 

[TwoBit]

Should we or shouldn't we disable it with a spanner? I'M CONFUSED.

 

[Iaculus]

British translation time!

''Disable it with a spanner" = "kill it with fire'', but for TV shows.

"ITV" = struggling commercial channel that nobody really cares about.

 

[Kourosism]

He is referring to an earlier tweet where he mentions his new show on BBC. 'Disable ITV with a spanner' implies remove the option of the BBC's biggest competitor (such as it is) so viewers would default to watching Sherlock.

Of course, then people complained about disabling ITV (like anyone would care...) so he backtracked to say just score it out of the listings magazines. And because he isn't spineless, he added the proviso which brings him back full circle.

Hope that makes sense.

Also... HI EVERYBODY! How've you all been?