Thunderbozz

It feels a bit like a new year this week, an opportunity for a fresh start. After the horrorshow of a workload I've had to plough through over the last month, yesterday marked the beginning of a few days' worth of time off. Yesterday was allegedly the worst day of the year (a scientific claim, based on weather, time since Christmas, debt, time until pay day, low motivation and the complete failure to stick to a New Year's resolution) when The Samaritans have their busiest day. It was also the day Keane released their new single. Not for me though! No, I'm starting 2007 again (not that there was much wrong with the first attempt) without the shadow of last term's work and last year's unfinished business looming over me. It's also provided me with the opportunity to get things done, contact people I haven't spoken to for ages, and to sleep.

80 years of football commentary on the BBC will be celebrated this weekend when Five Live Sports Extra will be covering the game in the style of 1927's sports coverage. Listeners would hear the main commentator report on the action, while a second voice would call out numbers . These numbers corresponded to a grid, printed in the Radio Times , to show where the ball was. It is widely thought to be the origin of the phrase "back to square one" (a pass back to the goalkeeper in square one). The match, between Arsenal and Manchester United, will be broadcast on Five Live "normally"; Five Live Sports Extra will carry the game in retro style with John Murray commentating and Five Live legend James Alexander Gordon shouting out the grid references.

Channel 4's satirical drama The Trial of Tony Blair was shown on More4 last night, and I must admit to being slightly disappointed. As these unfavourable reviews suggest, the satire lacked bite and the comedy was akin to pantomime slapstick. It impressed on some counts: the subtle visual links between Blair and Saddam Hussain caused much amusement (especially when it dawned on Blair that the medical he was undergoing at the central London police station were introduced by his own legislation); the changing faces of politics on either side of the Atlantic also raised a smile. That said, Robert Lindsay's performance as Blair wasn't as convincing as his earlier attempts, and many of the other characters were just two-dimensional stereotypes. Portraying Cherie as so anti-Blair didn't help the story's credibility at all. The main criticism of the programme was that there was too heavy an influence on the comedy. The sad reality is that had it been played st...

She may have servants at home, but this is a different kettle of fish altogether. I feel sorry for Shilpa, because she is completely powerless to do anything about the privileged position that has been forced upon her! All credit to Jade Goody. For she not only feels embarrassed about the Celebrity Big Brother task in which she is the unwilling centre of attention, but she is also deeply embarrassed by the behaviour of her mother, Jackiey. Plus, she has shown the dumb courage to ask Jermaine Jackson the questions we all wanted to know the answers to, but couldn't bring ourselves to propose... just how is Michael coping after all that bad stuff? The "celebrities" may not be A- (or even C-) list, but it's testament to Big Brother's evil genius that this series is shaping up to be better than ever. The fact that two people have had to walk away already proves that this social experiment should prove fascinating viewing. Bring on Jade's gran.

It's now semi-official: I am no longer an employee of the Co-op. Instead, I work for the Co-op erative . This rather clumsy name change is as a result of the company re-branding under one banner, bringing it into line with the Co-operative Bank, Travel agents and Pharmacies. To implement such an important change, my task at work yesterday was to take down all the posters with the old C0-op colours, only to replace them with a near-identical poster with the letters "erative" tacked on the end. Also re-Branded this week was Channel 4. Yes, Celebrity Big Brother is back and Russell Brand is back on our screens doing what he does best: causing mayhem and shouting other people down. Brilliant. Meanwhile, the new twist in the house itself is another stroke of genius: the prospect of voting out Jade and leaving Ken, Jermaine and Shilpa to deal with her family appeals to my sense of humour. As does the following joke: What's the difference between Hitler and Paula Radc...

In response to a report on the ITV News : an attempt to redress its biased tabloid reporting. The general tone of the report suggested that the National Express company had caused the deaths of two people because they were ferrying them from London to Scotland on a speeding death-wagon. An employee "on condition of anonymity" told them how the company's double-decker coaches were "unstable" due to the configuration of their rear wheel axles. As a (very sensible) precaution, National Express announced all double-deckers would be removed from service once they had completed their current journeys. ITV jumped at the opportunity to scaremonger, claiming hundreds of passengers were still on the roads in dangerous vehicles. What were they expecting to happen: all double-decker coaches on the roads to simultaneously explode? Were they expecting National Express to instruct all drivers to pull over immediately and leave those hundreds of passengers stranded on the hard...

Happy New Year everyone!