If it's a TV show of a book however, judge it on its DVD cover.

The old adage goes that you should not judge a book by its cover, but what if that book was in fact a TV show? On what should you not base your ill-informed first impressions on then - its time slot? Its channel? The fact it stars that guy you really hated from that thing? Certainly, you could not write it off completely because of its title...

Yet I have done precisely that. Irrational as that sounds, I have been turned off (thus won't turn on) because some writer had the audacity to call their prime time drama Revenge.

Revenge, really? Sure, why come up with something clever when you can simply hit us over the head with your theme. After all, romcoms would be so much better if they were all called Love, wouldn't they? That way audiences would be reassured of a happy ending and some romance. No need to use superfluous flowery witty words when you can be blunt about it and just call a spade a spade, and a First World War movie, Fighting. Honestly, go right ahead and spell it out for us. Audiences really don't mind when you insult their intelligence, trust me.

Of course, all this may seem overly pedantic, but some of the best television titles are subtle, memorable, and occasionally very misleading. Only Fools And Horses, for example, whilst having fools in plentiful supply, did not feature any horses. Likewise, the protagonist of 24 is not a number, The Vicar of Dibley omits the then-unusual fact that the local member of the cloth was a woman, and The Big Bang Theory is as far removed from the series' actual premise as it is possible to be (indeed, episode titles only refer to minor events within that week's plot). In contrast, a title like Revenge sets viewers up to expect that most, if not all, of the storylines will be about someone seeking to get their own back or avenging a misdeed.

Also, who actually seeks revenge nowadays? It's such an old-fashioned thing to do. You will never see a personal ad in the newspaper that informs you that, due to a minor slight or blood feud, that someone is now out looking to get their vengeance. It doesn't happen. Then again, if I ever find the person who came up with that title...