Lucky Jim: Back in the mid-fifties, a fellow named Kingsley Amis wrote a novel fusing academic satire and romantic comedy. (Where have we heard that before?) It was called Lucky Jim and it was wry and colloquial and delightful. It featured an average fellow trying to succeed in a somewhat skewed, but very recognizable, world. An argument could be made that everything from Catch-22 to High Fidelity owes a bit of a debt to this book. Until just recently it had been out of print for years. Such is the fate of great satire.

The reason it's back in print is that Masterpiece Theatre just featured a fine video rendition. They stayed fairly true to the novel and the acting was top notch. There was more emphasis on the romance side of things, versus the satirical side, but not overly so. If it gets re-run, be sure to take the time to check it out.