Was quite stunned to see how lacking the guides for Brass Eye and The Day Today are. These are two stunning shows that deserve more respect. Nobody has contributed enough to be an editor either. I must amend this by getting out the old DVDs and start making summaries and recaps at least.

Have been watching the old 80s cartoon The Mysterious Cities of Gold again so that I can make it's guide more comprehensive. The problem is that writing recaps is quite time-consuming and not too enjoyable. I find I can't sit back and enjoy the programme too much as I'm too busy tapping away on the keyboard as it plays. Just contributed recaps for episodes 11 and 12 today, only another 27 to go. When it's all done and dusted perhaps I'll settle back and watch them again without interruption. Contributing to this guide though has been fun as I've been able to watch the ongoing saga of MasterAndrew23, the dyslexic, power-hungry editor of this show and a billion others. Have added him and some of his detractors to my friends list so I can have something to laugh about every day. Not sure whether I should come public to the others with my feelings about the man.

After much harassing by the missus I finally sat down and watched this six-part adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Coincidentally, it was adapted by Andrew Davies who also adapted my current favourite old-novel-adaptation, Bleak House. Anyway, jolly good this was though I couldn't help be frustrated at the frustration that must be held by every character desperate for a shag. Makes you want to slap them and tell them to forget all the prancing about on the dancefloor and courting crap, just do it. Hated the Bennett mother. My missus tells me that she is supposed to be loud and annoying, but surely I shouldn't want to physically harm the actress performing the part? The Bennett and The Darcy got together in the end while the youngest Bennett married that nasty bloke. I want a sequel to be made. I want to see what happened next. Surely that'd be more interesting and maybe wouldn't be constrained by Austen purists. Perhaps Darcy and the nasty bloke could have some serious duelling while the ugly Bennett takes off her glasses and lets her hair down and turns into a beautiful swan who gets Bingley and Darcy's attention and causes a whole affair-scandal, divorce, deceit, murder, shagging, suicide, twin brothers, secret manuscripts pinpointing the precise location of the Noah's Ark of the Holy Grail Covenant. And shagging. That'd be good. I'd watch that.

Another show I'm recently loving is Bleak House. Never read Dickens before (well, I think I read Scrooge at school) and have never watched any of his other screen adaptations (especially Oliver!, I hate musicals), but I was tempted into this one mainly by the quality of the actors and comedic bit-parts. I like the fact that the BBC has made each episode (except the pilot) half an hour long which, in our bitesize world, is just perfect to keep my interest. I sometimes feel that some of these shows try to stretch plots too thinly over a whole hour (or 45 minutes if non-BBC). The storyline is great, very intriguing. As I said, never read Dickens before so I don't know how this story plays out. I also like the modern style of direction, such as the swooping in of the camera in people's faces or letters, etc. Gives it all a sense of excitement which may have been missing if adapted in a standard way. The BBC News Website has spoiled it a bit as I now know which character dies of spontaneous human combustion! But, all the same, I'm looking forward to the last few episodes when I get back to England.

Saw the first two episodes of this new HBO/BBC production. Had read a few articles about it beforehand, notably one from Robert Harris who criticised its lack of historical accuracy, but he did begrudgingly say that things were changed just to make it dramatically better. Totally agree with him. Not that I know much about the accuracy but it is certainly an exciting show to watch. So far I've been most impressed by Kevin McKidd. Never thought too much of him before, thought him just a competent actor, and I could only really remember him in Trainspotting. However, this is probably his "breakthrough" role and should see him in more big things in the future. Other than that I like the fact that this American TV series shows actual cock and fanny! Brilliant, no sanitising here, it shows that they're willing to show it "as it is". And they had a marvellous bull sacrifice scene which must've upset all sort of PETA types. Am looking forward to the next episodes when I return to England. I believe there are 12 in total for this first series.

Just watched the first six episodes of Lost series 2. The first couple of episodes put me off it a bit. Finding the bunker with all that food, electricity (washing machine and dryer!) and music made me think the show was changing too much. Then Hurley's episode came along and that episode was all about change, and whether it's for the better or not, and I realised that the writers were writing this episode specifically for people like me. They knew the show was changing, with the introduction of the new characters (survivors of the tail-end section of the plane and Desmond), the bunker, another leading cast member dying, etc. and were trying to explain that this is a good thing. Anyway, watched more episodes and I am now of the realisation that the show has not gone downhill but has improved. Frustratingly though, it has still not answered much of the mystery of the island. Far too many new questions have come up but I'm increasingly liking all the connections the characters had before they came to the island. Fascinating. Also, they've added a Scotsman to the island. Yay, I think. He seems to have disappeared but I imagine he'll be back. The question is whether he really was stranded on the island like our survivors or is his meeting with Jack years earlier all part of a major government conspiracy!

I feel a bit bad that I've just gone through all the episodes of Black Books and edited many of the quotes. I edited them for the simple reason that sometimes the spelling was bad, or the person being quoted wasn't named or simply that this was not correctly highlighted in bold. I feel bad because this is a very easy way to bump up my level and give me contribution points towards Black Books but I'd rather not receive the points. I'd rather it was more of a Wiki-style editing process where I get no kudos, just one of those warm feelings inside for having contributed to the greater good.