..In My Absence.

My friends and I have a long standing joke that news happens when I go on my holidays. This 'curse of hendo' manifests itself in lots of ways, ie when Princess Di met her end Yours Truly was in Nashville, etc etc.

But this joke turned a bit sour this afternoon. I've been away for three days and returned to hear of the stabbing to death of a local shopkeeper, and a major police alert following the discharge of six bullets into the air outside my local convenience store.

Frightening, and very sobering. Ms T heard the shots from the second incident while sat watching the telly.

Falling back in Love with TV

I'd stopped watching television - actual broadcast television - almost altogether by the Summer of last year. I exclude from this statement the television I watch in the course of my duties . And I also exclude the amount of DVDs of TV series I also watch. Actual old fashioned TV was pretty much extinct from the Hendo-Sony.

But then the BBC came up with three things I couldn't take my eyes off.

- Strictly Dancing. Some people say Bruce Forsyth is past it. I'm not one; he presides over this live show, which lasts over an hour, and records another hour the same evening with hardly a slip. He is the presenter's pro. And he is 80!

- Cranford. Ensemble acting from the cream of British female actors. Fabulous fabulous fabulous.

- Sense and Sensibility. Last episode this Sunday; beautifully shot and great performances. Don't miss!

The BBC is back.