I enjoyed it immensely.

I have no idea if Netflix shows go in here or the US thread. Meh.

Anyway, Mindhunter: very good. If I told you it was a character drama exec-produced by David Fincher about the dawn of criminal profiling in the FBI in the 70s, you'd probably immediately be able to imagine what it's like. Refrshingly free of cliché so far (three episodes in), and with some great performances from the two male leads and a particularly mesmeric work from the actor playing the first serial killer interviewee we've seen so far.

Watched the first episode of 'Gunpowder'. Suitably mucky for the period and a rather gruesome demonstration of Stuart entertainment at the start. Some of the dialogue was a little clunky, however, and I really didn't think Mark Gatiss was particularly well cast as Sir Robert Cecil. I'll probably catch the next two parts nonetheless.

That's one of those shows that sounds really up my street based on what I've heard but which I've yet to actually watch. Must make amends.

You're missing nothing, third series was a waste of time.

Even if it is I’m not convinced that the laughter track that plays over the top of it is from the same audience’s reactions. The actors don’t react to the laughter at all and lines are read out while “laughter” is still going on from a previous joke. Happy to be proven wrong if you know something I don’t.

It's probably worth watching them in order (starting with 'Twenty Twelve' which is really the first series) if you can. Not because there are massively important plots to follow or anything but new characters do come in at times and I think it would be better appreciated if you see them from their point of introduction rather than as they stand now.

I went to a taping of Harry Hills TV burp once and they definitely put a laugh track on afterwards. The show we saw was quite different to the one that actually went out on TV so I guess the moral of the story is to not believe anything you see or hear on telly.

The penny and the pie were NOT YOURS!!!

Ken Levine, who used to write for 'Frasier', 'MASH', and 'Cheers', wrote a blog post about this recently.

Here’s an interesting thing – audiences respond way better to things they see live actors do rather than watching finished pre-records. In other words, let’s say I’m directing an episode with a car scene. I will pre-shoot it.

The editor will put it together that night and the following night when we shoot the show in front of 250 people we’ll have the ability to play it back for them and record their laughter.

However, when I direct, instead of showing that finished scene I bring out the actors involved, place them in two chairs, explain to the audience that they’re in a car driving, and have the actors do the scene live. I record the audio and even though the audience has to now imagine the scene, they laugh much louder having real actors performing the scene.

It all goes back to why some shows are filmed in front of an audience in the first place – there’s a real energy the cast derives from a live audience. They feed off their laughter. Their performances go up and if the writing is good the whole show rises. It’s intangible but the home viewer can sense it.

Getting back to that car scene, I wonder what would happen if we just aired the scene of the two actors on chairs instead of the real one with them in an actual car. I don't think the home audience would be thinking about the laugh track at that moment.

Fun fact - if they use prerecorded (or 'canned') laughter, often those recording are very old, and the people laughing in them are almost certainly dead.

I watched a programme last night and it was called Motherload. It's got Philonmena Cunk (Diane Morgan) in it and I thought it was very funny.

It's about parents dealing with the school run, PTA and stuff like that. Most amusing.

'Peaky Blinders' starts again tonight! Yay!

I think I have missed season 3 completely.... arse..

I am finally watching Line Of Duty, the BBC drama about the police's Anti-Corruption force. It's very good. It's on Netflix if you missed it at the time, like me.

It’s on the iPlayer I think

So I'm halfway through S2 and omg omg omg. Keeley Hawes is just amazing.

This just goes from strength to strength. A regular household quote now, upon anything going wrong, is to snarl "catching criminals is hard enough, BUT CATCHING BENT COPPERS... GIVE ME STRENGTH!"