QUOTE:
Just watched Monday's The Last Word with Sheila Hancock doing a monologue just before she commits euthanasia (yes, I know).

Absolutely magnificent. I rarely use the word, but she was awesome.

If she doesnt win every UK TV acting award, I will send the boys round (to redecorate).

If you havent seen it (and the two companion pieces with Rhys Ifans and Bob Hoskins) go immediately to bbc.co.uk/iplayer and watch. They will be there for a month, I think.

They're all on again on Monday. I didn't like the Hancock one much but the Ifans one (which isn't a companion piece - all three are self-contained) is tremendous.

(Oh and things are on iPlayer for a week, not a month.)

Yeah, I saw the last two of those, the Ifans one in particular was a peach.

They're by Hugo Blick, who was co-writer and director of Marion and Geoff, and they were similar in tone and style to that show. Although I like Rob Brydon, if you look at stuff like this, compared with the Keith Barrett Show (which Blick wasn't involved in), you get the impression that Blick was responsible for a lot of tghe pignancy and subtlety of that programme.

Brydon wrote 'Anually Retentive' though, which was great.

I had a row with my Multiplex cinema over their scheduling of Female Agents. They decided to show it Monday to Thursday 10:10am and 2:00pm.

I liked Female Agents too. A bit silly and cliched in places but very enjoyable. However, one thing bugged me:

------------SPOILER ALERT--------------------

What happened with Louise's pregnancy? It was mentioned a few times and then seemingly forgotten until the end title-card revealed she died childless. Did she miscarry whilst being tortured? Did I miss something? (It's possible. I was occasionally distracted by the whispery-chatty people sat near me in the cinema)

I'm really looking forward to the restart of the Sarah Connor Chronicles in two weeks time.

Also, I've just been informed by the agency that manages the block of flats I live in that we've got a communal satellite set up. Is Sky worth it these days, and what would be a good package for me if so? Bear in mind that I've got an HD TV and I'm not too bothered about sport (although NFL and an Oxford United channel would be nice).

Johanista - you know, I have no idea. How odd.

I can't believe Sarah Connor Chronicles is coming back and I won't be here. I bet Swiss TV is useless.

lyra - http://www.surfthechannel.com

Er, thanks! What does it do? I can't work it out.

Re Sky, 99.999% of the channels are beyond awful. I wouldn't bother with any of the extra money ones unless you felt like having the movie channels. BBC Four is good but that's free anyway. To give you an idea, the most watchable things on are Friends, Property Ladder, and Top Gear, and those are on 24 hours a day. The rest is shopping channels, Britain's Most Violent Police Chases, religion and pointless soft porn.

Oh I suppose the documentary ones are OK. I watch Animal Planet when it's not too sad. History and National Geographic and Discovery and that. Too much WWII by far though.

Go to videos, pick TV, and watch any of those shows.

I notice that 'How I Met your Mother' is showing on BBC2 with that channel's traditionally useless scheduling for US sitcoms (double episodes around midnight on a Thursday). It's not a great show (and owes huge amounts to 'Friends' and 'Coupling') but I do find it watchable.

I have similar feelings towards 'The Big Bang Theory' but again the scheduling means it's hard to keep track of, I think I have seen it four times but three of those were exactly the same episode.

Yeah, I like both those shows. Totally missable but pretty funny.

How I Met Your Mother is a rerun of series one, which was contemptuously scheduled even the first time, so I assume BBC2 haven't bought series two.

I had a look at Sky's channel listings after I posted and, yeah, it does seem really lacklustre. I'm mildly interested in the documentary channels, but from previous experience the vast majority are rubbish. I also though there would be more HD channels by now. The movies are very tempting, but I think I'll stick with Freeview.

I thought that the Big Bang Theory was really poor - a lot of stuff that presumably resembled witty repartee, but just wasn't funny. It looked like the kind of thing that doesn't usually make it beyond Paramount Comedy in the small hours of the morning.

However, The Office season 5 starts again in a month, so all is well. I've got Bittorrent poised and ready.

Big Bang Theory has grown on me. It's very broad and the nerd archetypes are sometimes off (for example, in my experience the sort of nerds that are into comics are not the same type that are physics prodigies) but the main characters are appealing and it's on at 8 pm on Monday night, which is prime vegging time for me.

How I Met Your Mother is on right after that. That's also grown on me.