Spain goes 16x9

After years of nobody being in the slightest bit interested, Spain has recently started broadcasting the correct size of picture for modern TV screens.

Before now, you either had to zoom in and lose the top and bottom of the picture, or put up with a crushed images with bits missing at either side. No one in Spain adjusts their TV's, so you got used to seeing everyone unflatteringly fat. I'm told by put-that-remote-down-and-shut-up-about-it friends that I'm the only person in the whole of Spain ever to have complained.

Pictured is RTVE newsreader María Casado, Spain's answer to Joanna Lumley. Same voice, different language. Can you hear the difference?

Now: 16x9

Before: crush to fit

It's called aspect ratio. Your telly has it, your computer monitor has it, your mobile phone has it and A4 paper has it. A square has an aspect ratio of 1:1 A room 3m x 9m has an aspect ratio of 1:3. My Nikon slr camera takes photos with an aspect ratio of 2:3. Old film cameras took negatives that were 24mm x 36mm. So that's also 2:3

I wonder if the BBC would allow that outfit!