Since War Horse became a hit, the South African Handspring Puppet Company have become celebrated for their combination of manipulation and acting with animal and human puppets. This is one they made earlier, in 1992

Downton Abbey is “a show that people shouldn’t want to see”. That’s according to Julian Fellowes, who wrote it. He’s not trying to put you off; and, if he is, it hasn’t worked. Downton, as everyone calls it, has turned out to be the show that people want to see more than any other. The first series brought about one of those rare media moments when the gogglebox in the corner suddenly becomes the focus of urbane attention. Even inveterate telly­phobes were required to have an opinion, just as they were when The Jewel in the Crown or Brideshead Revisited became, for their moment, the acceptable face of TV.

Madonna believes that her film about Wallis Simpson may rehabilitate the woman whose relationship with Edward VIII caused him to renounce the throne.

The pop star said she hoped that W.E. — her second film as a director — would combat negative portrayals of Mrs Simpson’s character such as in The King’s Speech, which showed her as an ambitious social climber.

The pop-pickers had Top of the Pops, the trendies watched The Tube, but in the 1970s and 1980s serious music nerds got their fix from The Old Grey Whistle Test. Now it’s coming back — to radio, at least.