For the record: 31/08/2009

<i>&lsquo;It has provoked an astonishing level of public debate and been an under-appreciated showcase for social diversity,&rsquo; Channel 4&rsquo;s Julian Bellamy defends Big Brother while shuttting it down</i>

All revved up

Back from the Edinburgh Television Festival where James Murdoch’s public roughing up of the BBC at the JamesMacTaggart Memorial Lecture provoked an angry exchange between the News Corp boss and the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston, who shared a table at the post-MacTaggart dinner.

Being Edinburgh, the heated argument quickly achieved the status of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s Thriller in Manila. Later that evening, Jeremy Clarkson, at Edinburgh to give a Top Gear masterclass, decided to give Murdoch – who employs him to write for The Sun andThe Sunday Times – the case for the BBC.

It was left to Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International and former editor ofThe Sun, to remind the boys that it had been a long day and they should just go to bed.

Sun dance kid

A new era begins at The Sun on Wednesday as Dominic Mohan officially starts in the editor's chair. Known on the showbiz circuit for his Keith Richard-style haircut, rock fan Mohan made his name as a champion of Oasis while editing the paper's Bizarre column. So as he goes in search of new revelations about the rich and famous we must hope for his sake that pictures never emerge of him frantically dancing La Vida Loca as one of an audience of Ricky Martin fans at New York's Madison Square Garden back in an earlier life.

Wire service

The Tories have been struggling to convince us of their street-credibility by comparing scenes from Baltimore-based television series The Wire to "real life in Britain". But their case may be helped by the appearance of The Wire actor Dominic West, (aka Detective Jimmy McNulty) at London's Portobello Film Festival, where he will be introducing the work of young film-makers on Wednesday 10 September. West agreed to attend because he loved a gritty movie made by excluded schoolchildren for the West London independent production company Latimer Films. Called The Real Notting Hill, the film portrayed life in a hood that's home to that avowed fan of The Wire David Cameron.