TV

Downton Abbey
2x01 Episode 1
2x02 Episode 2
Episode 3 went out tonight -- about time I got caught up with ITV's ratings juggernaut.
The new series begins about two years on from where the last one left off, which is nice because it means things get a wriggle on and there's lots to find out. Indeed, for a genteel Sunday Night drama, Downton moves through plot points at a surprising lick. Criticisms levelled at some of the blunt dialogue or soapish plotting aren't misplaced, but it's good fun as much because of that as anything else.
And then for episode two, we get a handy marker telling us it's now April 1917. Thank goodness for this and I hope it continues -- I was rather surprised, and then bemused, when last year's finale suddenly revealed two years had supposedly passed during the course of the series (when it had felt like months, at most).
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on ITV Player.]

The Great British Bake Off
2x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]