EIGHT more interviews yesterday, two Christmas films and it already feels like Boxing Day.
Among those I met up with was Life Begins and Have I Got News For You star Alexander Armstrong – known as Xander.
He’s among the cast members in ITV1’s big festive comedy drama, Christmas At The Riviera.
He also plays Audrey fforbes-Hamilton’s nephew Adam in the long-awaited one-off return of BBC1’s To The Manor Born.
A total of 21 episodes of the classic sitcom were screened between 1979 and 1981.
The Good Life star Penelope Keith played Audrey, with Peter Bowles as Richard DeVere and Angela Thorne as Marjory Frobisher.
Xander explained: “Adam has some sort of dodgy past that we don’t really know about.
“He’s come back and they’re going to try and make a farmer of him, so he’s working on the estate.
“He has a lovely time trying to flirt very hard with Angela Thorne’s character, Marjory.”

A crime wave hits Cranford in this Sunday’s near perfect episode of BBC1’s costume drama hit.
“We shall have to put shutters on the shop, like you see in Manchester,” declares store co-owner Mrs Johnson.
Some 7.9m viewers watched last weekend’s visit to the Cheshire village, with 3.2m for the teatime repeat of the first episode.
That Cranford debut had already attracted 8m viewers for its original screening.
Episode three is simply not to be missed.
It begins in November 1842 and takes in Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Shrove Tuesday.
The relationship between Miss Matty (Dame Judi Dench) and Mr Thomas Holbrook (Michael Gambon) moves centre stage.
There’s much more to savour, including scenes between Mr Carter (Philip Glenister) and young Harry Gregson, played by the talented Alex Etel.

IT’S the time of year when the TV world goes mad.
Or perhaps that should be, just a little madder than usual.
For the last month or so, the channels have been hosting launches and interviews for this year’s Christmas programmes.
At the same time, there are dozens of interviews and screenings linked to new series coming to a TV near you in January.
My notebook and digital recorder are full to bursting.
And there’s plenty more to come over the next fortnight.
There’s a lot to look forward to in the first few weeks of 2008.
But, for now, we’ll stick to Christmas.
Today is the day the BBC release their official programme information for the period from Dec 22 to Jan 4.

HEARTBEAT fans got a bit of a shock last night.
The cosy Sunday night drama set in the 1960s had a brand new look.
Episode three – Night Mail – delivered an unwelcome change.
Our old favourites appeared starkly in focus and not so cosy at all.
The whole look and feel of the series appeared to have been ruined.
Had ITV changed the filming technique just three episodes in to a new series?
Was this High Definition with disastrous results?
Happily, it was a one-off error.
First thing this morning I asked ITV Yorkshire what was going on.

FANS of The Royal will be intrigued by ITV1’s latest soap.
As the title suggests, The Royal Today is set in the modern day.
A total of 50 initial episodes have been filmed – and could be followed by hundreds more.
I was at the series launch yesterday, where we saw the first two half-hour episodes.
The drama arrives on screen in early January and will be shown every weekday afternoon.
The theme tune is the same as that used for 1960s-set The Royal (pictured).
As is the building in Scarborough used to portray the exterior of St Aidan’s Royal Free Hospital.
But right next door is the new modern Middleditch Wing.
Thanks to computer imaging, it’s actually ITV Yorkshire’s Leeds HQ placed on screen, with added NHS signage.

THERE is a touch of irony about the filming of hit BBC1 costume drama Cranford.
Author Elizabeth Gaskell was raised in Knutsford and later lived in Manchester.
She wrote about the railway coming to Cheshire – and re-named Knutsford as Cranford.
But the original location could not be used for filming.
“I was fleetingly sad,” screenwriter Heidi Thomas (pictured below) told me.
“But it’s entirely fitting.
“The railway did come to Cranford and it changed it so much that we couldn’t film there.”
As explained in previous Cranford blogs and in this scene-setting feature, Lacock in Wiltshire stood in for Knutsford.
West Wycombe Park provided the exterior of Lady Ludlow’s Hanbury Court.
Many other locations are also used during the five-part Sunday night serial.

IT’S been a good 24 hours for British TV drama.
First came news that the opening episode of Cranford had been watched by no fewer than eight million viewers, beating I’m A Celebrity.
Then, in the early hours of today, another BBC1 drama hit the headlines.
The Street – filmed in Salford and Manchester – scooped two International Emmy Awards in New York.
That’s executive producer Sita Williams pictured picking up the best drama series award.
Jim Broadbent, who played warehouse foreman Stan (pictured below), was voted best actor.
As you can read in later editions of today’s MEN, it was a night of triumph for British TV, with seven wins from eight nominations.
The online version of the story is here.
A second series of The Street is currently being screened every Thursday night.

YOU can just imagine the holiday postcard home.
Weather lovely, food great, bumped into Nelson Mandela.
That’s what happened to Robson Green – as he told us this afternoon.
“We had one of our best New Year’s last year,” he said at the launch of a new Wire In The Blood film.
Robson, wife Vanya and son Taylor were on holiday in the Indian Ocean.
“The owner of the hotel went, ‘Bring Taylor, bring Vanya – a special guest is arriving.’
“It was Nelson Mandela. So that was pretty extraordinary.
“He waved and said hello to Taylor.”

THERE’S a real treat on TV tonight, and make no mistake.
The story behind the making of Cranford is almost as engrossing as the serial itself.
But there are fears for the long-term future of BBC period drama.
“I think there won’t be that many more Cranfords because of the scale and cost of it,” director Simon Curtis told me.
“I very much hope that the BBC will keep on making unique programmes like that.
“But you can’t take anything for granted in the current climate because everything is up for grabs.
“It’s a huge show and it took years to make. A lot of things were aligned.”
I also asked BBC Head of Drama Series & Serials Kate Harwood about the future for projects like Cranford.

X Factor winner Shayne Ward thinks they can go all the way in this year’s contest.
Now Girls Aloud have told Hope they aren’t threatened by the prospect of another girl group in the charts.
It’s disco week in The X Factor tonight.
Hope’s Raquelle Gracie told me this week about meeting both Shayne last Saturday and this evening’s special guests Girls Aloud on Thursday.
“I told Shayne that we both had something in common, coming from Manchester.”
He, in turn, told Hope they could do very well this year.
Raquelle also expanded on a comment by judge Louis Walsh on last week’s live show.
He urged girls to get behind Hope.