As I write this, my wife is desperately trying to avoid spoilers for the latest episode of Strictly Come Dancing. Having missed the original broadcast, she has been frantically logging out of all forms of social media, lest a stray Facebook status or retweet give the game away. Add to this the possibility of a friend innocently revealing what happens, and it’s clear just how difficult it is to live spoiler-free.
And it’s not just difficult for those watching television. For followers of sports, too, there is a longstanding problem of avoiding the final score before being able to watch the game.
Popular book series also face the problem of key twists being revealed too early. When J.K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in 2005, a banner was hung over a bridge over the A442 in Shropshire revealing an important character’s death.
