“No one wants to kiss a girl in black.”

So we’re three weeks in and I can no longer resist the urge to talk about Merlin, the BBC’s modern re-imagining of Arthurian legend. Why do I love it? Well, go and iPlayer the first two episodes of this series and see for yourself. It really hit the ground running. With a cast of relative young unknowns and older big names (Richard Wilson, flexing his comedy muscles as Gaius this week and Anthony Head as Uther) this is a series that blows Robin Hood out of the water. And also proves that the BBC can produce other work to equal the standard of Doctor Who. There’s a five-series plan or so I’ve heard, and I can’t wait to see how it all pans out.

And there’s the superb Downton Abbey which premiered on Sunday and from which I take my title quote. I was hooked since the first trailer which used a choral version of Every Breath You Take by The Police (inspired by Cranford’s choral use of Scandalous?). Now I’m a period drama junkie anyway, but this is really fantastic. Not only does it boast some of my favourite actors (Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Brendan Coyle and Penelope Wilton to name but a few) but it’s written by Julian Fellowes! When it comes to this sort of complex, peopled drama, he’s the man. Really looking forward to seeing how this pans out over the next seven weeks.

In other news, I’ve had my first job rejection. Although I would like to take this opportunity to thank The Bush Theatre for actually having the decency to email me to say they wouldn’t be inviting me to interview. Yes, it was obviously a mass email sent to everyone who wasn’t getting an interview, but it was better than nothing. In my experience nothing is exactly what you get, you only know you’ve failed because no one has bothered to contact you. It’s actually really nice to receive a kindly-written no, even one that’s been sent to 100 other people. I also had an email to acknowledge receipt of my application for another job which also told me when I could expect to hear from them again. You see, employers? It’s not that difficult to be polite!