During June and July a good many of my evenings -and some whole days- were spent at the at the National Film Theatre following the Dennis Potter season.  Marcus Prince, the BFI’s knowledgeable television programmer, was collaborating with Potter’s long standing friend and producer, Kenith Trodd, to screen every single one of Potter’s television works. It made for an intense couple of months.

Some three months ago I got involved in a conversation with colleagues at the University of Bologna about medical humanities grants and, in relation to those, about the possible contribution of media studies, and television in particular (if allowed, not to mention, approved of), to the research on the cultural iconography of medicine.

Since the announcement that Danger Mouse (1982-1992) is to return to TV screens, this time on the BBC, I have had several conversations with people about whether this ‘remake’ will be any good. Most of these conversations have been with people from my own generation, who watched Danger Mouse —and its spin-off Count Duckula –back in the day but the BBC clearly intends this remake for a child audience.

Some three months ago I got involved in a conversation with colleagues at the University of Bologna about medical humanities grants and, in relation to those, about the possible contribution of media studies, and television in particular (if allowed, not to mention, approved of), to the research on the cultural iconography of medicine.

Huge changes took place in British TV over the summer, and very few people seem to have noticed. American majors embarked on a spending spree that is reshaping both production and broadcasting. Viacom has bought Channel 5 from Richard Desmond’s porn-to-Daily-Express Northern & Shell group for £450 million.

Earlier this year Louie CK told us that “The Whole Country of Australia Rips TV”, and it’s a problem that our Government is trying to do something about.

The BBC’s charter renewal is due in 2016 but traditionally the years and months beforehand are full of political jostling, public pronouncements and secret (and not so secret) lobbying.

This year has marked the 20 ^th anniversary since the death of an important British television screenwriter, Dennis Potter.

Let me come out, here, once and for all. I actually like international football. It’s interesting in a jokey kind of way. There’s some skill involved, and a good goal can take your breath away. I also like it because for most of the time it’s dead boring and you can talk to your mates.

Tony Hall has proposed a momentous change as part of his plan to take the BBC through charter renewal after next May’s general election. He has proposed that BBC production should be completely separated from BBC Broadcasting, and should lose its current guarantees of production work from BBC channels and commissioning editors.

In deciding what to blog about this week, I was met by a confluence of events.