If only this meant that she'd be playing Mrs Lovett in PD; she and Sweeney Todd would be great additions to the show. Is Michael Cerveris available?

I used to love Emergency! (I'm old enough - sigh - to have watched it when it was originally on the air from 1972 - 1977). "Engine 51, engine 51. . . ."

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I visited the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge when I was 19; I was tagging along with a group of kids from my former high school, and then after they went home I stayed on in England for four weeks by myself (ah, those were the days). We were at Vimy on a dull, grey, drizzly day, and a lot of the kids didn't even…

I found out about Lee enlisting when I was searching through the local paper, and then did some Googling, and found out about his war career from a niece (or grand-niece) in England. This was just in the last couple of days; the curator of the museum here thinks that there might still be descendants living up near…

There's a near-ghost town a few miles from here called Walhachin, on the Thompson River, which was founded at the turn of the last century as part of a fruit-growing venture (apples). The orchards had started to produce good crops by 1914; then the war came along, and within a month 43 men of military age had left the…

The first time I saw ‘Goodbyee’, the ending was such a punch to the gut I felt sick; I had no idea that ending, so bleak – yet, ultimately, so moving, with a field of grass and poppies, and the sound of birdsong – was coming. Watching it again, the line that makes me feel the most sick is Darling’s joyful ‘Thank God!…

Electric Dragon! It's you! Making a Python reference! Ah, brings back those carefree, happy Thursdays of summers past. . . . (softly hums 'When Does a Dream Begin')

Does that mean tragedy's tomorrow?

No, no one suggested it; my husband gave me Gods of the Arena for Christmas, and when I saw it was set before the events of series 1, I decided to start with it. I wish I'd known about the first minute being a spoiler for series 1, but other than that I'm glad I watched it first; it really shades in a lot of what…

Top. Men.

This felt, to me, more like an episode where the series is getting back on track and heading into the final stretch of series 2. For all that people wanted the study to be back front and centre, it's hard to see how it could have gone on as just more of the same as in the first series; now, with the focus shifting to…

I'm old enough to remember when one could refer quite innocently to wearing thongs, and no one would bat an eye. Now it just embarrasses my teenage son on the rare occasion when I slip-up. Flip-flops; they're called flip-flops now.

Exactly. "Bring on the blood and noise, but if I have to listen to Rupert Brooke maunder on about some 'corner of a foreign field being forever England' once more, I'm going to desert."

'The blood, the noise, the endless poetry' cracks me up just thinking about it.

Even though I'd seen Gods of the Arena before I watched season one, and therefore knew that Spartacus wasn't going to be shy about killing off major characters, Varro's death in 'Party Favors' was like a punch to the gut. Having seen the episode again I realise there are subtle clues throughout pointing to what will…

Well, I waited eight days before 'ruining' it (far longer than your suggested 'couple of days'); as I said, it was inadvertent, and I've now amended the post. So apologies again, and I'll try to do better next time, okay?

See reply to Headless, below. For what it's worth, I've edited my original. But for heaven's sake, people, get a grip, and some perspective. People can't go tippy-toeing around, afraid they might unwittingly spoil something a week old for someone. Then again, I was once party to a conversation where someone (not me)…

Apologies for the (inadvertent) spoiler. I'm of an age where if you didn't watch a show on the night it aired, then you had to accept that spoilers would come your way, because those who had watched it would be talking about it. It sometimes difficult to adjust to this brave new world of PVR, online catchup viewing,…

So glad to see Ann Dowd back in the series; I like Essie a good deal, and Dowd is a wonderful actress who brings out a lot of nuance. I hoped we might see her in MoS again (I gather she was on the 'Next week on . . .' preview in last week's episode, but we get MoS on Movie Central here in Canada, and they don't show…