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“I made a lot of assumptions about him, and I was taken aback by how forward-thinking and progressive he was,” he adds.

When Wharton was selected for England's Euro 2024 squad, manager Gareth Southgate said the midfielder was the type of player the Three Lions had missed "for seven or eight years", and praised his forward-thinking game.

“Ultimately, it just takes people asking the right questions and being willing to be forward-thinking,” he said.

But the fact that it was written and performed at all — it nabbed quite an audience laugh, as they recall — signals just how forward-thinking “Mid-Century Modern” was designed to be.

In some cases they have been explicitly muzzled — told by their bosses to “be forward-thinking and to avoid pre-judging Trump,” as CNN chief Mark Thompson told his staff, according to Oliver Darcy.