It was a quiet TV night and New Tricks (2003 – 2015) was coming to an end. In the Cold Case office, the three police detectives, brought out of retirement, and their younger boss were solving the case.

Confronted with the challenge of editing an article I had submitted a year ago, writing a paper for a conference for the week after next and starting work on my (now long overdue) book, it was with some horror that I realized I had put myself down to write a blog this week. What was I thinking?

October 2008 At the Quality American TV conference in Dublin back in 2004 Maire Messenger Davies highlighted a key problem in studying television: namely, the question of availability. She mentioned NBC’s critically acclaimed series I’ll Fly Away (1991-93), which lived on in memory but not in any tangible form like DVD or video.

Don’t Do It Ofcom! The US networks have vandalized their prime asset. The length and placing of commercial breaks has made drama and sitcom almost unwatchable. There are five breaks an hour, all of them inside the shows. Look at this analysis of an episode of House which shows how these breaks can be positioned episode. The start of the show has a clear run of 12 minutes to the first break.