Media: Quality control

In all the advance publicity about tomorrow's Programme Strategy Review from the BBC, it is worth remembering a few basics. One of the laudable aims is to improve programmes: can anyone say that poorly executed dramas (A Year in Provence, Eldorado, Lady Chatterley's Lover), adorn anyone's popular schedules? Second, while Here and Now is held up as an example of new popular current affairs, as opposed to the Birtist special interest current affairs programmes (Public Eye), it is consigned to a 7.30pm spot, opposite Coronation Street, so it can never be that popular.

And why is it so obsessed with class: really good popular programmes are watched by everyone. As for making more programmes from the regions to reflect the UK's diverse cultures, never forget that Radio 4's output is heavily influenced by regional input (The Archers, Medium Wave, Tea Junction, to name but a few) but the network still goes down best in the South-east.