I woke up this morning to multiple messages from friends saying how sorry they were that David Cassidy had died in the early hours of this morning. Strange, but true. Anyone who knows me well knows that David Cassidy was my first love. We have history, David and I.  I stood in the rain and greeted him at Heathrow Airport. I was there at all the concerts.

I said it wouldn’t work, didn’t I? Yes, friends, after less than two years in operation, the BBC Store is shutting up shop, having admitted defeat ‘in the face of streaming service rivals’. Way back in November 2015 I blogged about the Store’s launch (I like to keep things current), when Auntie Beeb was proudly trumpeting the fact that over 7,000 hours of content, old and new, would be made available to purchase and view via

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, Friday nights were (all too briefly) enlivened by a pair of young scamps with a penchant for critiquing popular culture, whether mounting toy-based parodies of contemporary film and television, utilising Star Wars figurines to skewer trash TV formats, or dispensing Vinyl Justice to the mad, bad and (occasionally) dangerous of rock ‘n’ pop.

What do the following programmes have in common?

Big changes are taking place at Sky, even before the much anticipated buyout of non-Murdoch shareholders by Fox. This buyout is currently awaiting approval from Ofcom and the relevant minister. At least that isn’t John Whittingdale any more, but Karen Bradley is scarcely one to stand up to the all-powerful Murdoch machine.

I am often asked for my recommendations on what works in terms of teaching television at HE level. It’s not exactly the right time of the academic year for this, but here are some of the things I’ve learned from teaching television on undergraduate degree courses in the UK over the years.

I guess we have all had the experience of pointing a remote device at the wrong point of focus, and wondered why nothing was appearing on the screen. Or having sat on the TV remote accidentally, to create mayhem on the screen. That might be the only times we have become more aware of our dependence on the remote.

There’s been quite a bit of trending lately on Facebook about saving the BBC. I’ve done my fair bit of sharing a picture of the wonderful David Attenborough leaping to the broadcaster’s defence. Others have shared the BAFTA speeches which this year were full of praise for the corporation. This is perhaps no surprise since several programmes that won were made for or indeed by the BBC.

Netflix’s Jessica Jones and the BBC’s Happy Valley, on the surface, may seem to provide different viewing experiences, yet they share certain distinctions beyond the obvious element of both series depicting leading female detective/crime-solving characters.

My PhD research examines how television is viewed in the family context, with a particular focus on technology and parenting.