‘Who the hell are they?’ Ed Glint grabbed the microphone.

On screen four black-clad figures surrounded Roger Primm’s desk.

‘What’s going on, Rog?’ inquired Ed, irritation saturating his voice. The large clock showed seven minutes until they were live.

‘Beats me, Chuck,’ Roger remained his calm, unflappable self. ‘It must be ‘bring a nutter to work’ day.’

One of the infiltrators said something. Roger sighed, removing his mike and earpiece. A voice, reedy and possibly female boomed around the control-room. ‘We demand you get real. This programme is fake.’

Ed squeezed his eyes shut, as he said, ‘What? An end to fake news? Cos we…’

‘Shut up.’ The second figure, pencil thin moved next to the speaker. ‘We demand you change your approach. We want…’

The third said, ‘Real teeth.’

Ed frowned. He looked at his colleagues. ‘WTF? Is this some sort of dental protest?’

The fourth figure joined the others. He was decidedly camp. ‘Make his clothes real.’

Rog rolled his eyes and said loud enough to be heard in the booth, ‘I’ll remove my dentures and broadcast naked if that helps.’

Ed felt his heart race. Breathing slowly he said, ‘I don’t think the quality of the news will be enhanced if the newsreader…’

‘Anchor, darling,’ Roger looked mock-offended.

‘… newscandy looks like some down-and-out with jagged gnashers…’

The invaders appeared to have stopped listening; they’d turned on Roger who looked utterly disinterested…. Then the first interloper dug into a bag and pulled out a set of hair clippers.

Ed felt his blood drain away. ‘Geez, it’s the Tonsorial Terrorists. Rog, Rog, get out now…’

But he was cut off by the four figures surrounding Roger, muffling his screams as they started to remove his signature Barnett.

At last, things had got really real.

Microcosms prompts this week were: Activist, newsroom, crime