GLOBE columnist Peter Grant reviews the new Thursday night series called Press. 

I watched the news today , oh boy ...

Hold the front page, indeed, as TV attempts to produce a drama depicting life in the newspaper world.

Yet again they fail, using clichés galore and cringe-inducing stereotypes.

The industry has been in the headlines itself thanks to the rise of Trumpian-infused 'fake news.' 

This new six-part drama was an ideal opportunity to tell it as it is.

It doesn't.

Our soaps frequently mis-represent journalists and the media.

It's only dramas such as State of Play in 2003 and its film version six years later as well as the 1994 US film The Paper that get anywhere near accuracy.

Now this poorly-written, shoddily-constructed series borders on sit-com territory.

Ironically they get their facts wrong.

The long-running children's show Press Gang in 1989 had far more depth.

Two rival papers The Post and The Herald vie for stories.

The former is all for entertainment the other worthy but dull.

Ben Chaplin plays Duncan Allen the oily editor of The Post with Faustian glee.

He is out to expose a Government minister for her sleazy past.

Can I ask where the spin doctors and the bodyguards were when she strolled into the office?

Duncan is pure panto - meet baron hard-faced.

He is unike any editor I have ever come across in my 40-year career either on a national, provincial paper and magazine.

Meawnhile at The Herald, news editor Holly (Charlotte Riley) is grieving over the death of her flat mate who was knocked down by a police car.

She thinks this 'might be a story' – a budding Woodward and Bernstein she is not.

Enter a newspaper proprietor, played by David Suchet who has had his Poirot moustache surgically removed.

He wants to bank roll some good, old fashioned journalism at The Post.

And there's a rookie reporter who is sent on one of the most sensitive of assignments a 'door knock' – to interview the loved ones of someone who has died.

He is paired with an unhelpful, surly photographer. Now this has never happened to me.

Professional camaraderie gets results when you are out and about on a job.

Teamwork is crucial – 'we are all in it together' is the adage otherwise you will not gain trust.

The writer, Mike Bartlett, has never worked in a news room and it shows.

He may have interviewed various newspapers but has come away with a deluded outlook and an empty notebook.

There is not a redeeming character in this far-fetched production and there is also one key element of newspaper life missing - humour.

Laughter is a defence mechanism amid the highs and lows, the successes and disappointments.

I won't be boosting the circulations of Press ... sorry, its ratings.

But I will happily nominate it for a DAFTA.

DE-Pressing - Two Stars