I almost forgot to set the VCR... That proto-blogger from the Victorian era, Mr Pooter, addresses the nation tonight in BBC4's adaptation of The Diary of A Nobody. I'm not sure actor Hugh Bonneville is prim enough (watch the clip and see for yourself) but, with any luck, that notoriously raunchy scriptwriter Andrew Davies will resist the temptation to turn Charles and Carrie into suburban swingers. I once wrote a Times feature on the Pooter phenomenon, and was not particularly surprised to discover that Mike Leigh is a huge fan of the book. He told me that he and his wife, Alison Steadman, used to have a catch-phrase whenever anything particularly funny happened on-set: "Carrie roared". [Hat-tip: Jo]
THE MORNING AFTER: Ah well, nice try, but Bonneville was much too broad - more like Lupin, really. And maybe it's one of those books that just can't be transferred to the screen. Reading about the pot of red paint is so much funnier than seeing it. I'm afraid I slipped back to the Man Utd thriller before the end.