My press-work falls neatly into two camps. I worked on The Daily Telegraph’s TV desk for a decade, (getting paid to watch TV is one of those jobs they never told you about at school). Reviewing is easiest if you either love or hate a show, it’s the ones in the middle that test you. Fortunately, The DT’s readers were intelligent and literate, and, as long as you didn’t say anything bad about the Queen or gardening, pretty much let say what you wanted. I made a couple of mistakes but I’m proud to have championed Deadwood, The Shield, Stargate SG1, Battlestar Galactica, an entire channel: BBC4, and Unreported World (you can but try). Print journalism has gone the way of buggy whips and mangles as social media, YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes et al have undercut the trad critic. There are still fantastic reviewers out there – and, let’s be honest, some terrible ones – and sifting through them is YOUR job now, because with so much great TV out there, how else would you know what to watch? (Anyone for The Penguin?)

My second string came after writing about an assault that happened at the end of Radio Times. I received a huge response from readers who’d similarly suffered, and also from some very peculiar men. I went on to detail it further in Words Can Describe. It was picked up by other newspapers (The Times), and I can honestly say, it’s the only time I’ve ever been in The Daily Mail and The Sun.