On the 69th Birthday of Hanna Barbera, we raise our cap to the cartoonists who put strong characters ahead of snazzy graphics to animate ten billion tea-times… Some struggles are more creative than others For example, I have continually exhorted my eldest offspring to soar the emotional heights in her songwriting, to dig deep into her feelings and experiences, to crystallize a thought, observation or episode that surfaces the universal in the unique… But for several years now I have...

Last night I was attending an AI networking event at a bar in The City, directly below a couple of hundred high-volume TV spectators swept away by the vicissitudes of the English National Sport …wondering where the Hell it all went wrong? As the “OOOHs” and “AAAAGHs” pierced the reinforced concrete ceiling of our bunker, and the hearts of several participants, I couldn’t help wondering (wandering?) why England, the birthplace of The Beautiful Game, didn’t have a recognisable audience...

59 years ago tomorrow, 25th June 1967, saw the first live multinational multi-satellite TV production. Entitled Our World, the two hour programme was the brainchild of Aubrey Singer, a BBC exec who would later be heavily involved in two landmark series, Ken Clarke’s ‘Civilisation’ (1969) and Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man (1973)* and written by Anthony Jay, who would later find fame as co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.** Under the supervision of the European...