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It is surprisingly easy to learn how to write a television show. There are a lot of good courses and books out there on how to do it. The best are often on how not to do it.

"The Pointless studio audience must be quite well-off because, whenever the jackpot stands at £1000, it never elicits even the tiniest ripple of applause." Andrew Cobby turns his attention on the BBC's hit daytime quiz show.

Onome Okwuosa reveals the facts of the fiction in creating the hit TV series Downton Abbey.

"Fictional detectives generally try to win our attention by pointedly not playing it by the book." David McVey looks at maverick cops.

"Flirtatious by nature, she was all woman and she knew it."

Andrew Cobby remembers 1983: VCRs, Columbo and Top of the Pops.

Andrew Cobby takes a humorous look at 1970s daytime TV: Crown Court, A Handful of Songs and Nancy Kominski - who wouldn't want to skip school for that?

Andrew Cobby looks back at the golden age of snooker on the box.

In spite of all the major domestic news stories of 1963; The Great Train Robbery, The Profumo Affair, everything else was eclipsed by the world shattering events in Dallas Texas on 22nd November.