Dallas was bold and brash, the ultimate Eighties soap. But will anyone tune in to the 21st century remake? By Sarah Hughes

With ‘Dexter’ and ‘Mad Men’ leading the way, TV title sequences are outdoing their film forebears. Gerard Gilbert celebrates the rebirth of an art form

It could lead to a power shift in soaps

Ingredients to serve 4 to 6

The International Committee of the Red Cross said today that more than 800 people were killed on Tuesday in intercommunal violence in the Ivory Coast town of Duekoue.

Ballet: I went to see the Royal Ballet's 'Giselle' at the Royal Opera House. My fiancé, Thiago Soares, was playing Count Albrecht with Mara Galeazzi as Giselle. It was a wonderful performance. I loved every minute of it. The whole company was brilliant and the production is fantastic in every way. It's one of my favourites to watch and dance.

JR is to be shot again – by the cameras, at least. Actor Larry Hagman has, not for the first time, ended months of suspense by confirming that he will reprise his most famous role in a TV remake of Dallas, the 1980s soap.

After moving from a small flat to a whole house, I panicked: I had little furniture, no budget and zero direction. Inspiration was clouded by the threat of expensive mistakes and "blank canvas" alarm. So where can one turn for ideas?

Notebook

Programme-makers are ruining their shows with lengthy spoilers that give far too much away, says Fiona Sturges

A histrionic take on the 12th century

Thank goodness for Coming Up. A collection of short films from Channel 4, it offers young talent a chance to show their skills with a brief slot on Thursday night. It's not just a break from the monotony of the channel's hospital/police office/chat-room-heavy roster; it's a genuinely interesting display of possibilities.

Aha! It's "Joanna Lumley's Mistresses". Actually, that's not quite right. Unlike her previous outing, in which the lovely Lumley was given personal possession of no lesser world wonder than the Nile, this is not, in fact, the official title. But let's not dwell on details: "Joanna Lumley's Mistresses" it was, to all intents and purposes. She came (clad elegantly in eau de Nile suit), she saw (or at least surveyed everything that mattered – in this case her daughter's wandering eyes), and she out-sassed everyone she encountered, trailing the two-seasons-old cast in her formidable wake.

Books: 'Flash of the Spirit' by Robert Farris Thompson is a book I am reading now. It's about African and African-American art and philosophy. I often express ideas in my work related to current affairs and on a weekly basis I tend to read 'The Economist' and the weekend 'Financial Times'. For 'Crash Willy, a piece on show in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, I was influenced by the credit crunch and drew from both non-fiction resources as well as fictional tales, such as 'Death of a Salesman'.