Nick Knowles: My Week in Media

Last week I read...

I'm in Doncaster at the moment and have been reading a local Doncaster paper and The Yorkshire Post. A lot of the stories here are still about the floods. Places in Gloucestershire got a lot of coverage in the summer, but Tolbar in Doncaster, and Sheffield and Hull still have massive problems with insurers being slow and a lack of government funding. Last week's sacking of the Tory parliamentary candidate Nigel Hastilow [he was forced to resign] for referring to Enoch Powell's speech was particularly worrying. I don't in any way support what he was saying but I think it's an incredibly dangerous thing if we start to censor people if they make references to things in the past.

I read Top Gear and New Scientist, where there was an article about how the environmental lobby, especially in America, is going down the biofuels route even though there are massive problems with them. Areas of virgin rainforest are being cut down to plant palm oil plants. On top of that, farmers in the Midwest are changing to grow biofuels instead of maize and wheat. The surplus from there used to be sold to Africa to produce a stable relief diet for people in difficulty, and all that is disappearing. Because we have all agreed we want to change the planet, there are several environmental trains leaving the station and my worry is that everyone is jumping on the wrong train. It's time to call a halt and do the science.

Last week I watched...

I caught an episode of Heroes, which I like very much. Its slight weirdness is appealing. Nothing seems to surprise us anymore, so I think anything with a sense of the unknown about it appeals to us. Heroes has that: it's about normal people with weird capabilities.

I also saw Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Channel 4. It's about an American TV studio, and is done by the people who used to do The West Wing, which was probably my favourite thing on TV from the last five years.

Last week I listened to...

I listen to Rhodri Williams on TalkSPORT. He has a rugby show with Will Carling on Sunday nights. The rest of the time I listen to Five Live – being an old newshound myself, I quite like being kept up to date on world affairs.

Last week I surfed...

I don't do online at all. I use my phone and people send me post. Most of the stuff you get via email you can quite comfortably live without. I'm convinced that the internet is a Mogadon for the masses and that it stops you getting out and doing something with your life.

Nick Knowles' new lottery show, 'Who Dares Wins', begins this Saturday night on BBC 1