DID you watch it last night?
All The Small Things attracted a respectable 4.6m viewers in BBC1’s 9pm slot, the most watched show on TV at that time.
The cast included the busiest man on television this week.
Bryan Dick plays the mysterious curate Jake in Debbie Horsfield’s latest drama.
He also appeared as Phil Beaumont in Lewis on Sunday night.
And – as a very young man – in an ITV3 repeat of Clocking Off on Monday.
Making it three nights in a row on Tuesday with Jake…a man who looks to have an unholy past.

VIEWERS may be shocked to learn that ITV is to axe the 2009 staging of the National Television Awards.
But all may not be lost…yet.
We won’t be turning up as usual at the Royal Albert Hall in London on a chilly night in October.
ITV’s current cash crisis has led it to postpone the big night, hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald.
It’s yet another visible sign of just how troubled ITV is.
Also, of course, reflecting what’s happening elsewhere.
ITV is currently in the process of cutting 600 more jobs and reducing its programme budget by £135m over the next three years.
That’s already led to the axe for Wire In The Blood.

Yes, I know…they are possibly the five most boring words on the web at the moment.
“I am now on Twitter.”
I’m still to be convinced that Twitter is not a triumph of hype over actual substance.
And possibly a step too far into our computer screens.
But I am now on here.
Updating regularly with yet more “inside” info about the Life Of Wylie, among other things.
While also, of course, blogging away here – with exciting developments ahead.
Thanks to all of you lovely readers, The Life Of Wylie blog recorded a million page views in 2008.

ANGELA Griffin made quite an impact when she returned to Waterloo Road this week.
The former Coronation Street star told me it was a big episode for her character Kim Campbell.
And she wasn’t kidding.
Filmed in Rochdale, Waterloo Road is one of those dramas which is often ignored by TV critics.
Which is a shame – because it’s a cracking midweek watch.
It knows what it is and does its job very well.
When I met up with Angela recently, she confessed: “Waterloo Road is one of those programmes where, for some reason I think that I shouldn’t like it.

SIR Alan Sugar was on good form at the press launch for a new series of The Apprentice.
“You’re sounding like that Geordie,” he told me.
A reference to one of the 15 new boardroom wannabes in the fifth series, which begins on BBC1 next Wednesday.
Sir Alan got my home town of Newcastle upon Tyne right.
But he was less keen on my question.
Sadly, a growing number of the viewing audience for The Apprentice will either have recently lost their jobs or be worried that they’re about to join the dole queue.
Unemployment today having gone over the two million mark.
So his famous phrase “You’re fired” will carry extra resonance for many.

SHEILA Hancock was being brutally honest.
Her husband John Thaw was one of Britain’s favourite actors when he died in 2002.
But she believed that as future generations moved on and new stars emerged, he would mostly be forgotten.
It’s a sad inevitability that young viewers of the future will not know anything of John.
Unless they catch repeats of the likes of Inspector Morse, The Sweeney and the wonderful Goodnight Mister Tom.
Or read her moving book The Two Of Us – My Life With John Thaw.
There’s another book on John which I contributed a chapter to.
But as none of the contributors were paid in a saga that ended up on BBC1’s Watchdog, I don’t recommend you buy it.

THERE’S a documentary on TV tonight which might just save your life.
Not that you’d know it from this rather bizarre image, one of several BBC publicity pics issued to tie in with the Horizon film.
It shows, at least in part, Prof Myer Glickman, from the Office of National Statistics.
I use it here, as it almost certainly won’t appear anywhere else.
Perhaps it’s me? Am I missing something?
Myer tells BBC2’s cheerily-titled How To Survive A Disaster: “We would normally classify any death before the age of 70 as premature death.”
Almost three quarters of which are preventable.

THE end of another long and varied week is in sight.
It began on Sunday night with coverage of Roxanne Pallett being frozen out of Dancing On Ice.
And continued back at the keyboard at dawn today with the story of Gary Barlow and his Comic Relief team reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Along the way I spoke to University of Manchester team captain Matthew Yeo on Monday night, just minutes after rivals Oxford were disqualified from University Challenge.
Spent a day on location in Stretford on Tuesday with the new series of The Street for interviews and behind the scenes coverage when it returns to BBC1 later this year.
Wrote about current shows like Shameless, Coronation Street and Law and Order: UK.
And revealed all about The Royle Family’s return for Comic Relief.

THERE just had to be one final twist to the Gail Trimble story.
News broke online around 10pm last night of a BBC probe into claims about the winners of this week’s University Challenge grand final.
It appears one member of the Corpus Christi Oxford team ceased to be a student during filming of the series.
Sam Kay (far left in pic) had been studying chemistry.
But during the team’s campaign towards ultimate victory, led by captain Gail, he left the college to work as an accountant.
Sam told today’s Observer here that he was a student during the first two rounds before graduating last June.
While at least one member of the University of Manchester team, who finished as losing finalists, reckons that breaks the rules.

ASK most actors about reality TV and you’ll get a similar answer.
They hate it.
It pushes more expensive drama off the screen and results in fewer job opportunties for them.
But some, including Law and Order: UK star Freema Agyeman, have a different view.
There wasn’t room to include her thoughts on reality television in this week’s MEN TV feature interview here.
So for those who are interested, here’s what Freema had to say:
“I love reality telly. I must confess, I do watch it,” she told us at the launch of the new ITV1 series.