Jo Brand and Lee Mack were part of a panel discussing current issues in the profession at the launch of a new Centre for Comedy Studies Research.  Dr John Roberts, chairing, posed the first question; what should a

I have spent most of the last week worrying about my upcoming turn on the CST rota. Like Kim Akass my TV viewing habits have gone awry, mine in the inevitable balancing act of work/life/kids where at present I am wedded to watching entertainment programming mostly as it is scheduled – how passe.

At times, the television landscape can be a source of irritation and chagrin for avid fans of certain series due to the falling axe of unceremonious cancellation. If the viewing figures do not match the economic requirements of the corporate body, then, more often than not, the proverbial guillotine is brought forth to routinely dispatch the offending article from the schedules.

It turns out that Washington isn’t the only place where ideas go to die  .  .  .  Watching the derivative and uninspiring fare served up last week by the networks to woo advertisers, I was flummoxed at the lack of creativity and modernity  .  .  .  I asked one media big shot what he watches.

I have a confession to make.  Recently, on a rare day with the house to myself and nothing to do, I watched Supernatural , Season One.  The entire season.  All twenty-two episodes in one day.  This is not the first time I’ve watched the series, and initially, this blog was going to be about repeat viewing.

I read with interest Christine Geraghty’s blog ‘Reappraising the Television Heroine’ from 6 September. Geraghty notes the prevalence in recent TV drama of the female detective, and she discusses various contemporary television series and their handling of female protagonists. The question she poses at the start of her blog is, what is it I’m looking for in a television heroine? This got me thinking, but not so much about female heroes.

On Monday 30 September at 9pm Sky Living launched The Face, a talent-training format based on modelling. One of the three mentors, Naomi Campbell was in New York on launch night.

As a plethora of PhD comics available for browsing will show, there are common themes that PhD candidates express about the thesis research and writing process. Largely, I am sure I don’t have to inform anyone, these focus on the anxiety that such an overwhelmingly massive undertaking is a task to which the candidate is just not fully equipped.

When Miley Cyrus appeared on the Alan Carr ChattyMan show (13th September, 2013), the narrative and representational markers that define her as a particular star were in obvious play. Miley is immediately sexualised and (playfully, knowingly) comments on her sexualisation.

This week I watched the first episode of Bates Motel , the television spin-off from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960)* *which began its UK broadcast on the 12 ^th September.  Of course the show is more accurately described as a prequel as it is set when Norman Bates is a teenager, his mother is still alive and they have just purchased a motel to set up as a new business.

I was initially thinking of calling this post “Is the Age of Quality Television Over?” or even something more ominous like “Is This The End?” but I don’t think that it is, and I’m not ready to play TV-Nostradamus just yet, in spite of whatever signs I might be seeing from the comfort of my living room.