Split screen has been around for years but when did it stop being arty-n-clever and just become part of the routine grammar of the TV documentary? It was used in BBC2’s The Week that Shook The World: The Last Days of Hitler and it was used in the C4 Brinks Mat two-parter – both of these being interesting but run-of-the-mill histories of a specific incident involving many people and requiring ancient contextual footage and dramatic recreations – and in fact I’ve seen split screen several times in the last week or so, on programmes I wasn’t paying much attention to. I like when techniques which are meant to alienate or amaze drop below the golly-radar. I imagine it helps that many homes have big huge TV screens now.