Jonathan Ross has promised to slip in an "improbable word" when he hosts the Bafta film awards next month.

As a member of Bafta, I'm currently being bombarded with emails inviting me to screenings of films that distributors believe are in the running for awards. This is a reminder that, for industry insiders, the awards season has already begun, even though the first big "kudosfest" isn't until 11 January when the Golden Globes are broadcast.

Sir Bill Cotton, the former BBC executive who oversaw classic shows including Monty Python's Flying Circus, Morecambe And Wise and The Two Ronnies, has died aged 80.

I was freelancing when I met Kevin Bakhurst in September last year. I was working as a sports presenter on Five and as a correspondent for PTV, an Asian channel, as well as running a production company when we met at a networking event for aspiring journalists called Move On Up In News, which is organised through the Audio Visual Entrepreneurship Development Partnership.

The Baftas saw honours go to home-grown talent from behind the scenes. Now, Hollywood gets its chance to recognise the skills of our unsung heroes as well as the stars. We meet four winners with high hopes for the Oscars

Bafta is facing embarrassment over its decision to back out of screening a challenging documentary about disability.

What use are television awards, when all around there is evidence that standards are plummeting?

TELEVISION'S MOST glamorous night of the year was tinged with sadness as the TV industry gathered for the first time since Jill Dando's murder.

Jo Hansford has a salon in Mayfair and her own range of hair-colouring products. Clients include, Kate Winslet, Melanie Griffith and Elizabeth Hurley

THERE'S NO chat-show host like an old chat-show host. Michael Parkinson, brought back to the BBC after two decades, has been nominated for a Bafta television award for his show. He might have to present it to himself, as he is hosting the ceremony next month.

How Bafta-winning multimedia company AudioRom stole the show with virtually no capital to their name.

The multimedia industry had its night in the limelight last week as Bafta welcomed designers and programmers into the family.

Slightly baffled geeks in jeans were given the full celebrity treatment by Bafta

FORTY YEARS after the British Academy of Film decided to open its doors to that upstart medium, television, it has made a second magnanimous concession. The board of the academy has voted to allow interactive Web- heads (that is, those people working in new media) to be admitted as members.