So I'm lying there, right, and my regular osteopath says to me "Got any telly lined up this year then?" – actually let me stop there. I ought to clarify the situation otherwise you're going to think a) I'm turning into a chronic hypochondriac, or b) that my osteopath, Richard May, is rubbish at his job. According to my partner, who obviously knows me better than anyone, there may be an element of truth in the former, but casting aspersions on the latter would be biting the hand that heals me.

When the author, Margaret Forster, decided on a university, she chose Oxford where she headed with an open scholarship. Her husband, the writer Hunter Davies, who was also from Carlisle, picked Durham University. Another local luminary, the writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, also selected Oxford.

Rumour has it Leeds have lost their captain Stuart Hooper who has apparently signed for Bath. Unsurprising with Steve Borthwick having agreed his future with Saracens, it makes sense even though the Leeds coach Stuart Lancaster denied the signing of Hooper. It did not affect the result of an interesting match, though it could have especially as Peter Hewat missed with every conversion and kicked only two penalties.

Coach Lancaster and captain Hooper are in a relegation dogfight but they will rely on local talent to save the day. By Tim Glover

It was like rolling out a vat of hair gel in front of Gavin Henson and telling him to apply it liberally. No, the Welsh camp probably knew that last night's entreaty to the nation "not to put too much on James Hook's shoulders" would fall upon deaf ears. By then, the horse had already bolted, the legend had already been written, the star had already been born.

A chill wind blew across the County Ground yesterday, and it had nothing to do with the squally weather which curtailed the final session.

Britain's public spending watchdog demanded yesterday that the Royal Family open the books of the estates which earn them millions of pounds each year.

Medievalist, editor of Walter Hilton and pillar of the young Lancaster University

Alan Milburn returned to the Cabinet to take up a new post in charge of Labour policy last night as Tony Blair sought to get his ill-fated reshuffle back on track.

JACK STRAW came under fresh backbench pressure to make more concessions on his freedom-of-information legislation.

Sir: Watching the start of the latest England/Scotland encounter reminded me that the English don't really have a national anthem.

NO SOONER has D. J. Taylor published a 500-page life of Thackeray than he is described by some sort of don, John Mullan, as "a jobbing writer". What would the sneering Dr Mullan think if he knew that Taylor has also been a diligent editor of Airfix Magazine? He is an expert upon variants of the Lancaster bomber and a past master at easing decals from a saucer of water to the fuselage.

The Savoy's dramatic interiors and immaculately costumed staff are a fitting testament to its thespian past

Letter:Britishness defined