Changes on the way

I've been taking a few photos of the Gateshead town centre car park (often referred to as the Get Carter car park), not because I like it but because it's soon to go, and I think it's important to commemorate what I've long seen as a blot on the landscape. Even if it's replaced with something bland, it's almost bound to be an improvement.

I get quite annoyed at people who say "You must keep it", because of some misguided feeling that it's of architectural importance. These people almost invariably live in other parts of the country: I've never heard anyone who lives in Gateshead and has to look at the thing every day argue in its favour. Anyway, the argument is academic now, as the structure has deteriorated beyond repair - it has to go. We're still being told that demolition will start soon: since this has already been postponed once, it would be comforting to have a definite date. I'm expecting Gateshead residents to organise a party to celebrate!

Hopefully, a new and improved Trinity Square will start to appear soon.

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Who can do better...?

With the announcement that the new Doctor Who is definitely to start this Easter, I thought it was time to express my hope that Steven Moffat will give us a better programme than Russell T Davies did. Don't get me wrong - I am grateful to RTD for reviving the programme after a long hiatus, and letting us see brilliant stories like The empty child/The Doctor dances, Human nature/The family of blood, Blink and Silence in the library/Forest of the dead. It's no coincidence that none of these were written by RTD - he just isn't a very good writer and, with his light entertainment propensities threatening to kill the show in the same way as the appalling 80s version, his departure in January was long overdue. The "Christmas Specials" in particular seemed to be pandering shamelessly to the lowest common denominator. Do we really need to have it hammered home that it's Christmas with references to the season or snow every few minutes? In The runaway bride we ha

New Who

The name at the top of the bookmakers' lists this summer for the next Doctor Who was Peter Capaldi. I was interested to see the list but pooh-poohed this, as it seemed the production team were set on casting only young actors - I think it was even said at one point that only someone in their 20s could keep up with the pace of production. I was delighted to hear back in August that the rumours were, in fact, true. The choice pleased me for two reasons - firstly, as a long-term fan of the programme (except for the awful period in the 1980s when the production went badly astray) I wanted to see a Doctor with the authority that only an older man could have; secondly, I knew Peter back in the 1970s as a fellow fan - we're the same age and I've followed his career since the 1980s. I had met Jon Pertwee a couple of times, during the making of Death to the Daleks and Planet of the spiders , and got to know Peter through the Jon Pertwee fan club (started by an old school friend,

JP at Theatre Royal, 1975

Another photo to accompany my bit from yesterday. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of these occasions where it doesn't look as if I'm about to vomit. Maybe it's not a bad thing, then, that the image quality is so poor...

You're a beautiful woman probably...

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