17 Feb 2013

That was ye weeke that was

Meteors in the sky, the Pope resigning, and horses in the headlines. Are we in the midst of a medieval revival? Cartoonist Matt Buck does his best impression of Hieronymus Bosch for Channel 4 News.

Is it just us, or have things been turning a bit, well, medieval over the past few days?

The week began with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, something unheard of since the 15th century. The outer reaches of the internet have been alive with doomsday prophecies ever since.

On Thursday, we witnessed the fall from grace of one of the world’s sporting heroes, in a tragedy whose resonance was not just medieval, but classical and even biblical.

Then Friday saw a meteor shower over Russia, just hours before an asteroid narrowly missed planet earth. Surely a portent of something, if only of an avalanche of amateur footage uploaded to YouTube?

And all the while, we were coming to terms with the revelation that some of what we eat is derived from an animal most celebrated during the middle ages. Who was it who said “my kingdom for a Findus lasagne”?

Richard III would be turning in his car park…

You can view more of Matt Buck’s work at mattbuck.com