Media Diet Week 36

Press: it's not long since I had a pop at The Sun's redesign. I still find it clunky and slow, but earlier in the week I dropped in to The Mirror's website and was reminded all over again why I hate it. It looks good - I love the mosaic of full-colour pix on the home page - but when I click on News, why does it take me to a page that offers only 3 main stories followed by 2 secondary splashes? There's another link that says "More News" so I have to click again to read all the headlines at a glance and see what stories I actually want to delve into. This is stupid, useless design - forcing readers to make extra click-throughs endears you to no one. Not even your most loyal readers. And I'm not one of those - the Mirror will remain a site I will only ever dip into when absolutely necessary because of its user-unfriendliness. Thanks are due to The Guardian today for the funniest film review I have read in years. Peter Bradshaw's linguistic tongue twistas had me in stitches. All reviews should be this entertaining. More please. And, lest I forget, R.I.P. Eve.

Blogs: I was pointed towards The Gentlemen Ranters a few days ago, which is an amusing collection of hack anecdotes and spoof features. Love it. More please! Fleet Street Blues has been strangely quiet for weeks but has broken its silence to let us know it's going to be even quieter for a couple of months - intriguing! Talking of quiet, the Churnalists also seem to have chucked the towel in (or should that be hung the towel over the beer pump?). Shame.

TV/radio: It's been a good week for telly. After watching Jerry Springer last week on Who Do You Think You Are, I felt it would be hard to top that for compelling TV but I was wrong. God On Trial was, quite simply, brilliant. It shone. Even as it shone a light into dark corners. Anthony Sher led a fantastic cast reflecting the cream of British actors. I leave it to Andrew Collins for a proper review, and I agree with his parting comment about the licence fee... God on Trial clashed, of course, with WDYTYA, which fortunately has a next-day repeat, so I was able to catch up with Esther Rantzen's trip into her past. Forget about it being a good week for telly, this was a great week for Holocaust TV. But how could the BBC film Rantzen standing in the centre of the long-razed Warsaw Ghetto and fail to place her at the stunning memorial to the ghetto uprising just around the corner?

Books: I am a failure. I've read none of Alistair Campbell's diary this week at all. Not even paragraph. I did pick up something lighter (relatively speaking - it depends if you like serial killer thrillers or not. I do). I started Michael Morley's Spider and have managed about 40 pages over the last nights. Not much has happened yet.

And finally... I can't leave this week without a reference to BBC News Online's Magazine, which published 20 examples of grammar misuse on Wednesday. They were all sent in by readers and what tickled me most was the number of complaints against the BBC itself for slack use of language on the website. Aunty, consider your wrist slapped.

Media Diet Week 15

Press: it's been a busy week, meaning I've had little time to do more than just skim my papers online over the last 7 days. I've not even opened a magazine, apart from Press Gazette, which arrived late as usual.

Blogs: Roy Greenslade pointed me in the direction of Kristine Lowe, who has an intelligent and thoughtful take on hacking and blogging. Meanwhile, those delightful Churners managed to churn themselves. Foot, mouth, etc... never mind, lads - keep up the good work!

TV/radio: so, farewell Hotel Babylon for another year. You kept me mindlessly entertained for 2 whole months and I shall miss you. And with Torchwood gone for more than a whole week already, my evenings are infinitely duller. Compensation arrived in the form of a new series of Doctor Who, although after a better-than-expected start last week in episode 1, the very annoying Catherine Tate reverted to being Shouty Chav Donna (as in the Xmas special in 2006) in episode 2. Tut. How depressing. If she carries on like this and Tennant goes too, I may skip season 5 altogether. At least the recreation of Pompeii was good and the script was fabulous - I lost track of the number of in-jokes and witty references to other classic TV series. The only redhead more irritating than Tate is, of course, Bianca in EastEnders. My eardrums are still ringing from Friday's slanging match with Riiiiickaaaaaay!

Books: I'm close to finishing Martin Edwards' The Cipher Garden and (for once) I think have worked out whodunnit well ahead of the ending. I will definitely be seeking out the next in the series and also looking out for his Liverpool series of crime fic. I also have the new Val McDermid on my stack to be read. I always love a good rummage in the huge number of charity shops in my vicinity. They are a great place for finding out-of-print titles - this week, I picked up a copy of Gerard Depardieu's cookery book, as well as Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Food. Yes, apart from the ridiculous number of dictionaries and crime novels at Wordsmith Towers, there is a vast collection of cook books....

Media Diet Week 14

Press: once again I found myself buying the Guardian and the Sun to read on a train. I'm so used to reading online editions now that hard copies just feel, well, odd. The main plus is that I get to do the sudoku and crossword. I'm starting to like Look. I mean, what's not to like? It's a quid. It rounds up the best high street fashion each week. And it has short and snappy sleb features such as "Amy Winehouse: why I can't give up drugs". I bought another issue this week and feel drawn in. I tell ya, it'll be downhill from here on in.

Blogs: the hot tip right now is The Churner Prize. Sheer brilliance. As a hack who deplores churnalism, this blog really nails the culprits. Name and shame is my motto (well, one of them, anyway) and this does it admirably.

TV/radio: I've had a crazy busy week, leaving little time for much viewing and listening, but it has to be said, dahlinks, that this week when it came to TV, the star of the show was me. I got to sit in Jeremy Paxman's chair and be quizzed by the inestimable Race Noddy and, and, AND win the debate on points. What could be better? And thank gawd yet again for iPlayer, which will allow me to catch up on the Apprentice, EastEnders and owt else I've missed due to illness and propping up Aunty single-handedly. I did catch the finale of Torchwood - suffice to say I was shocked that Owen and Tosh got killed off. I guess they had better offers before season 3.

Books: I've started The Cipher Garden. So far so good, despite being only 100 pages in. I trust Martin Edwards not to let me down. I like the Daniel Kind and Hannah Scarlett characters, both of whom are developing admirably. Other crime-fic writers should take note. This is an easy, undemanding read yet with a very decent layer of complexity that requires close attention.