I've been watching DVDs of the 1971 TV series of "Doctor at Large" - which I hadn't seen again at all in the intervening 40 years. It's surprising who pops up in them as guest stars: Arthur Lowe, Maureen Lipman, David Jason (a young man playing an old man and looking exactly as he does in "Frost"), Patricia Routledge playing a white witch (and suspiciously similar in many ways to Hyacinth Bucket). There are various scriptwriters - the best episodes being written by John Cleese, including a prototype hotel for Fawlty Towers.

The other thing I'm doing is working my way through the box set of the BBC Shakespeare series of all the plays, first shown in the 1970s/80s. Guess who was the lead in "Titus Andronicus" ? Trevor Peacock. I hadn't recognized the name, but as soon as he answered a question with "Nay...nay", I realized it was Jim ("No,no,no,no,no...yes") from "The Vicar of Dibley". From then on, I was half expecting Mrs. Cropley to arrive with one of her cakes when Titus served up his gruesome meat pies at the feast ; )

- jeanie