Game of Thrones snub thrown at The Sunday Times TV writers by Sky Atlantic receives sassy comeback enshrined in print

‘The channel rarely makes an effort to keep us onside and we use Twitter to find out what it is up to’

Writers on The Sunday Times' TV desk gave readers a sassy preview for Game of Thrones and took down Sky Atlantic in the process

As Game of Thrones fans wait with bated breath for the first episode of season five to air in the UK on Monday night, a select group of writers who had been invited to view the episode ahead of time have been busily polishing and filing their copy ready for publication as soon as the credits roll.

All except at those on The Sunday Times’ TV desk however, who appear not to have been invited to the viewing party.

This omission has caused Sky Atlantic, the channel on which the series is broadcast in the UK, to be given a wintery write-up in its preview of the show by the newspaper’s TV writers.

Entitled “Winter is here, maybe,” the show’s title has been censored, reading, “G*** of T******,” before the preview details a candid description of the lengths those on the TV desk have to go to in order to stay on top of the show’s news.

“We don’t know what we did to upset them, but the fold at Sky Atlantic decided the Sunday Times TV desk should not be invited to the launch of their latest series of the blood, sex and dragons saga.

“The channel rarely makes any effort to keep us onside and we use Twitter to find out what it is up to. We have no idea if this week’s episode is any good, but we asked people who were at the launch and their response was: ‘It’s OK, nothing great, bit of sex, but not much happens this week’. More updates as we get them.”

The hype around the show is so great that the first four episodes of season five have been leaked online ahead of the UK and US premiers, with pirate versions believed to have been ripped from preview copies appearing on Torrent sites.