An absolutely classic front page greets readers of The Sun today, with the fantastic headline ‘John Reid’s brain is missing’.

They claim that a nationwide search is underway for John Reid’s ‘walnut’ sized brain, as they are unhappy with the way the Home Secretary has dealt with the full jails fiasco – which can, of course, be added to a long list of Home Office fiascos from the last few weeks alone.

Can John Reid ride out the storm, or will he soon become the next casualty of the cursed position of Home Secretary? I suspect the former…

It’s also been particularly fun watching the news programmes reviewing the front pages with this one… Tim Wilcox on BBC News 24 certainly seemed amused by it – but then, for a newsreader, it must be pretty satisfying to get to read a headline like that…

There’s been a lot of news coverage today about perceived racism on Celebrity Big Brother, with the row about the treatment of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty even reaching Parliament.

Channel 4 should view this as an opportunity, not a failure. The series is flagging as it is, but imagine the acres of press coverage if they were to cancel the series, right here, right now. It would be huge. And it would probably bring in fantastic rating for Channel 4, for the inevitable post-controversy interviews with the involved contestants. That would be one huge buzz surrounding this increasingly dull brand.

Then we come to summer. Channel 4 revamp the programme, have a whole new look to the series with a new presenter, and some tweaks to the Big Brother format. Revamping the show, along with the controversy that even having a new series, would create such a fever-pitch buzz that ratings would shoot through the roof.

They’d be mad not to capitalise on the controversy.

Five Chinese Crackers has a great analysis (exposé?) of one of the Daily Mail’s endless ‘political correctness gone mad’ articles. Well worth reading… and pretty hilarious. Click!

As soon as the title was announced, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows went on pre-order sale at Amazon.co.uk (Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows). And it’s already at Number One in their book chart.

A book, length unknown, content unknown, price unknown, and release date unknown reaches Number One in the chart. Surely this must be a first? Also interesting to see that Amazon are charging £13.99 – oh, how we’ll laugh if JK Rowling outdoes herself and comes out with some oh-so-weighty tome that will cost a good £15.99 at retail… Amazon could lose an awful lot of money!

Earlier this year, the BBC had a somewhat surprising hit in How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? For those with short memories, this was a programme which cast Connie Fisher the lead role in a new stage production of The Sound of Music, through a week-by-week Pop Idol style competition.

Now, the BBC have announced that there is to be a follow-up, Any Dream Will Do. This will follow the same format, but will cast Joseph, a narrator, and a Pharoh for a new stage production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat.

At the same time, ITV have announced that they are to produce a show looking for a new Danny and Sandy to play the lead roles in a new production of Grease. As with everything on ITV, Simon Cowell will be judging – alongside David Ian, also known as the most infamous judge of, er, the BBC’s How do You Solve a Problem Like Maria. No blatant copying there, then. And certainly nothing like the Strictly Ice Dancing and Dancing on Ice affair.

I understand that faced with this competition, Five are to sign a deal with Equity to ensure that anybody ever case in anything will have to be a member of the public chosen through a piss-poor TV talent contest. There will be a nightly show hosted by a naked Keith Chegwin going up against Deal or No Deal, and the series will only end once everybody in the country has a role in a musical. Everybody, that is, except for professional actors.

The move will then be superceded by 4, who will decide to give their schedules over 24/7 to a Big Brother style continuous musical, complete with resident orchestra, in which the participants must communicate only through singing, or be voted out to return to their singing day job. The winner will receive a traditional bouquet, and a place on the next series of Strictly Come Dancing – where the couples will be required to sing their own backing tracks whilst also ballroom dancing.

Can ITV not just let the BBC have a hit without feeling the need to copy it down to the smallest detail?

Nick Clarke, presenter of The World at One, has died aged just 58, following a very public battle with cancer.

Nick had a long career with the BBC, but I know him best as presenter of The World at One, and for his moving audio diary of his cancer journey. He always came across more as a chatty friend than a newsreader, as reflected by some 2,000 messages of condolence on the BBC website, and many, many more on individual blogs and websites.

The beauty of Nick Clarke’s political presenting is that he could examine politics in the greatest forensic detail, whilst also retaining a warmth, a breath of knowledge about everyday life, and a touch of little humour. His presenting was always elegant, and his interviews calm and measured, simultaneously detailed, incisive and impeccably polite.

Nick Robinson’s tribute brings back fond memories of some of the best political interviews of our time:

Nick asked once asked what I consider to be the perfect question – proving that you could balance persistence with courtesy. He was being fobbed off by the government’s straight-bat man Alastair Darling who was insisting on talking about the Tories’ policies and refusing to answer about his own. Nick paused briefly after one such answer – just long enough for the audience to notice. Then in that gloriously rich bass of a voice asked, “Minister, just for the sake of neatness could you answer the question I asked you”. Glorious.

There’s a full obituary on the BBC site, as well as a tribute from Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4. Thoughts are with his five children, and his widow Barbara.

He will be sadly missed.

France 24 (That’s “France vingt-quatre”, not “France Twenty-Four” as you might imagine). It’s an English-speaking channel “with a French perspective on the news”. It’s being launched here next month. Yes, because there’s a great demand for a French perspective on things. All those times people have said to me, “Eeee, I wish the 10 O’Clock News was a bit more French!”, or “Y’know, wouldn’t it be great if they renamed Sky News as Nouvelles de ciel?”

I just don’t get it. I don’t understand who its target audience is supposed to be, I don’t understand how it’s going to make money, and I don’t understand why anyone would be particularly interested in a French perspective on the news. I do understand why the American news channels get (albeit relatively few) viewers – after all, it’s the news from the perspective of the world’s biggest super-power. I understand Al Jazeera English – after all, the future of the unstable Middle East determines our future, and they have very different things to say. But news from a French perspective? I just don’t get it.

Here’s a trailer, as found via Iain Dale, who frankly seems as confused as the rest of us:

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As sort of an adjunct to this post, a little more about wearing a poppy on TV.

Jon Snow, on Channel 4 News, won’t (he hasn’t in years):

I do not believe in wearing anything which represents any kind of statement … I am begged to wear an Aids Ribbon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Marie Curie flower… You name it, from the Red Cross to the RNIB, they send me stuff to wear to raise awareness, and I don’t. And in those terms, and those terms alone, I do not and will not wear a poppy.

Sarah Smith, on More4 News, will:

I agree that newscasters shouldn’t wear all sorts of political or charitable adornments. The news studio is not the place for us to declare our commitment to fighting breast cancer or declaring we want to make poverty history by wearing ribbons or wristbands … But I think poppies are different. They are so ubiquitous for the first 11 days of November that not wearing one makes more of statement than having one on … I know Jon Snow has one on in the office – or in the street. But viewers who don’t see him in real life don’t know that. Many assume he’s taking a stand against militarism or the Iraq war. And so I think if we don’t wear a poppy we raise more questions about our personal beliefs than we do if we pin one on.

I have to say I lean more towards Snow’s point of view. I don’t see the point of institutional edicts, like the BBC’s, that state that all presenters must wear a poppy: Surely that’s no more meaningful than none wearing one. For entertainment presenters, I think it should be a matter of personal choice. But if we’re banning all manner of other symbols for news presenters, then why keep the poppy – its no less a symbol of a personal opinion than a cross, after all.

The Guardian’s free give-away wallcharts were a phenomenal success for the dead-tree Guardian, but didn’t involve Guardian Unlimited to any real extent.

But now, for the first time, the wallcharts have made their online debut…

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And so, six months after it happened to everybody else, the West Wing has come to an end for me. A seven-year era over.

I was fifteen when I started watching the West Wing, and preparing for my GCSEs. The West Wing, always watched on DVD rather than TV, has been a constant source of entertainment through those exams, AS-Levels, A-Levels, and three-and-a-bit years of medical school. That seems a heck of a long time to have been entertained by a single series.

The West Wing was a series with everything: The drama of the assassination attempt and Ellie’s kidnap, the sadness of the deaths of Mrs Landingham and, of course, Leo, the joy of election victories and moral victories, the comedy of – well, too many moments to mention, the romance between Josh and Donna, CJ and Danny, the marital tension between Mr and Mrs Bartlet, not to mention the politics… It just had everything. It may not have been on top form for all of it’s life – the programme struggled somewhat following the departure of Aaron Sorkin – but it was always a good watch. And the final series was, in my opinion, fantastic.

I know there are those who say that the final series was overly dramatic and sentimental, but I liked it. Maybe I’m overly dramatic and sentimental. I said back in January that I wanted the West Wing to die with dignity, and I think it did.

But what am I going to watch for the next seven years? What show can possibly combine the fantastic production values, unparalleled writing, and unmissable drama of The West Wing?

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