Indian Winter on Channel 4

I was interested to see that Channel 4 are having an 'Indian Winter' season. A mix of film, documentary and features, it begins with a TV premiere showing of the film Slumdog Millionnaire (on 13 January, 9pm), Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning blockbuster. How on earth it was billed as a 'feel-good' film at the time of its original cinema release I'll never know - I could hardly stop blubbing for the first 40 minutes or so.

The season also includes Gordon Ramsey and Kevin McCloud in their own programmes from India, as well as some Bollywood big-hitting films such as Rang De Basanti (14 January, 01.15), Jodha Akhbar (18 January, 00.15), and Om Shanti Om. Typically though, the screening times continue to assume that Bollywood fans are also insomniacs.

Nice though it is, I'm not sure why Channel 4 have chosen to focus on India and in a 'winter season' (anyone see this explained anywhere?) other than tryng to cram in as many 'slumdog' references as possible in their programme titles e.g. Slumdog Secret Millionaire, Slumdog Children of Mumbai and Slumming It all feature in this season.