Couch Potato Pickings - The Day After Tomorrow | Movie Talk | What's on TV

On E4 tonight at 9pm

Despite the fact that it rains a lot in this country, we all still feel compelled to remark on it every time it does, as though it’s the most unusual occurrence.

There’s something quintessentially British about discussing the weather. It’s part of our culture and heritage and maybe the reason is because it’s safe to do so - our weather is rarely really bad.

Even in recent years when devastating floods have hit regions of the UK, we’ve continued to bond over drizzle, perhaps sheepishly acknowledging those in peril out of guilt as we compulsively do so.

You’d think we’d all perhaps curb our polite weather chitchat at these times but it’s like sneezing, it bursts instinctively forth as soon as those clouds appear in the skies.

What happens in the US, in those tornado regions? Do they meet on the street and discuss the weather mindlessly? I doubt it. I’m sure their discussions are far more purposeful: “I think there’s a tornado coming, better batten down the hatches”, not ‘raining again, where’s our summer been this year?”

Speaking of tornadoes, Twister is on tonight on Sky 1 at 10pm. It seems that we’re spoilt for choice with weather disaster movies tonight.

I’ll be watching The Day After Tomorrow. It’s got that classic disaster movie plot – experts predict that disaster is looming, nobody listens until it’s too late and then it’s a race against time to save as many people as possible. It stars Jake Gyllenhall and Dennis Quaid and apparently the special effects are great.

And experts do say that natural disasters are on the increase due to global warming, so let this film be a warning to you.

Having said that, even if the entire nation watches this movie tonight, you just know that if it's raining tomorrow, nobody will bother to mention the film because we'll all be far too busy discussing the weather.