Spookily psychic drama writers

THE new series of Spooks is turning out to be, well, spooky.

It's amazing how up-to-date the writers manage to be, planning stories which, when they appear on screens months later, are surprisingly topical. It's almost like they have inside information from a secret source....

Viewers can get a bit bored if they fight Al Qaeda terrorists all the time, so last week we had a new hateful villain - a greedy financier. With all the talk about failing banks and the turbulent stock market, it was bang up to date.

Plus, pretending to be a City banker meant Richard Armitage had to wear a very smart suit that brought out the blue in his eyes. Yum.

The only things that didn't work for me was calling one of the villains Dalek, which conjured up lots of Doctor Who images, and casting Selina Cadell as a cabinet minister. She's a great actress but she's best in comedy roles like Doc Martin, Lab Rats and The Catherine Tate Show, and I just couldn't take her seriously. I know the economy is a joke now, but still.

A couple of other thoughts which occured to me watching TV lately.

There are some essential purchases that we must continue to make, credit crunch or no credit crunch. Food and power are pretty important, but so is new footwear, for shoe addicts like me.
I can't buy them as often, but we all need treats now and again.
So I was appalled by the comment of one so-called expert on the Location, Location, Location special on the economy, who said: "You won't make yourself happy by buying a new pair of shoes."
How little he understands the female mind. Stick to talking about property, mate.

"It's starting to look a lot like Christmas," says the song in the Asda ads. No it isn't! We're not even in December yet, so stop it with the tinsel and sleigh bells.