The first time I saw her, I didn’t know what to think. She was either the greatest or most unusual person I had seen on television for a long while. After pondering about it out loud to my husband, we agreed that she was great in an unusual way. And unusual great is my favourite sort of great.   I’m talking about the wonderful Lucy Worsley: my current favourite person on the telly. She is the Chief Curator of the Royal Historical Palaces, an author and TV presenter. You might have seen her presenting Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency or If Walls Could Talk on BBC4.   The reasons for this newfound admiration are as follows:   1. She knows her stuff: Lucy is clever. She studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford before gaining her PhD in Art History. She can talk and write about stuff like the history of domestic lighting in great depth and make it really interesting. She brings together historical sources and breathes new life into them, whilst making them fun and accessible. Leading onto my next point…   2. She looks like she’d be ruddy good fun to have a drink with: Whilst she is brainy it appears that Lucy isn’t above having a laugh. She’ll dress up as a Dandy, lounge in bed like a decadent flapper or don a bonnet and go all Pride and Prejudice. Yep, she’s not afraid of looking daft. She also has an knack for finding the juicy and amusing parts of history and making them relevant to life in 2011.   3. Her hair is super cute: This is the bob that I have longed to pull-off for years.   4. Her wardrobe is super cute: The lady owns contemporary bluestocking[.....]

Dear BBC2 I can’t say that your programming regularly sets my pulse racing. The funky camera work on ‘Horizon’ really helps to make odd science dudes look all cool and edgy, but they never quite manage to look, you know, sexy. I understand that providing eye candy is not a central tenet of the public service remit. But we ladies have been feeling somewhat ripped-off lately. Take ‘Lambing Live’. The baby sheep/lambs/whatever were unquestionably cute, but there was a problem. While the boys were able to admire Kate Humble, in all her wholesome bouncy haired glory; we were left wincing every time the word ‘prolapse’ was uttered, with barely a handsome farm-lad in sight to provide comfort. No. We got that bloke from Country File and some beardy farmer called Jim. The thinking women of the world have been craving a new crumpet ever since Californication left our screens. (David Duchovny playing a floppy haired, tortured writer who also happens to be a music snob and sex addict – what more could I possibly want from an hour’s telly?) Thank you BBC2 for answering our prayer. Two-fold. Your new Sunday evening line-up is a wonderful demonstration of how you can artfully combine the duty to inform and educate the public with the gift of hotness. Hotness in the form of Simon ‘looks great in outdoor wear’ Reeve and Professor Brian ‘I used to be in D-ream’ Cox. They are clever, interesting and far nicer to look at than a sheep eating afterbirth. I have learnt so much! The names of Saturn’s moons, the conflicts between communities and gold mining companies in Mexico, the adorable way Brian’s hair sweeps over his eyes, Cuban organic farming, Simon waking up looking all cute and vulnerable in his long-johns… Things seem pretty rough for[.....]

Things look rubbish for newspaper journalism right now. Local newspapers are disappearing and the nationals are getting increasingly worried about their future. With this is mind I’ve gathered some links to various insights on the state of print media: There was a feature in the G2 by Stephen Moss earlier this month that raised some interesting issues about the future of the local press. He talked a great deal about the link between local newspapers and local democracy. Personally, I’m not sure if the local press is that integral to the delivery of democracy. What use is a voice when no one is listening any more? Was that voice clear and loud enough in the first place? Thoughts please! Editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman expressed her views on the future of print media whilst speaking at the Fashion Business Club.Click here to watch the video. A few questions popped into my head after watching this clip: Have newspapers killed themselves? Has the transfer from print to on-line been mismanaged? People are still buying Vogue inspite of comprehensive (and free) online content. Why? Is it a prestige issue (i.e. you want to ‘own’ Vogue as it says something about you as a person)? If so, how can newspapers tap into this and become desirable as objects? An article was published on the BBC news website last week in which newspaper chiefs warned against the  ”death of journalism as we know it”. Newspaper bosses are calling for media merger laws to be updated to allow an ‘even playing field’ for newspapers when faced with competition for advertising revenue from on-line heavy weights such as Google and Yahoo.