The Borrowers on the BBC

A question literally nobody has ever asked: How many different adaptations of The Borrowers has the BBC broadcast over the years?

Me:

30 on 4

You know the drill by now: sometime this Autumn, most likely at some point in November based on the last few years (owing to Season 29 being one episode shorter than normal due to a last-minute pre-emption, Season 30 is an episode longer, which might tip the balance slightly, especially if there's no episodes skipped which seems possible), Channel 4 are going to show a new-to-terrestrial season of The Simpsons, originally shown by Sky a little under four years ago; the 30th season of the show overall, the 19th to debut on C4, and unless something truly seismic happens, the 15th consecutive season to debut in the familiar weekdays-at-6pm timeslot. I'll be back once they've wrapped up with a list of cuts and other oddities, but for now here's a list of things worth watching out for, including any episodes that might be dropped from the 6pm slot altogether.

Dispatches from Fighting Fantasy Fest 4

A picture of Jonathan Green, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the quality of which may explain the lack of photography accompanying this piece.

On Saturday, September 3rd, approximately 400 Fighting Fantasy fans descended on the University of West London in Ealing for the fourth Fighting Fantasy Fest. It had been three years since the last Fest, allowing this year's event to fall on the 40th anniversary of the franchise -- and to mark that occasion, two new gamebooks were launched, one of which was the first entry by co-creator Steve Jackson in the series since Creature of Havoc in 1986. It all added up to give the event a buzz you might not think possible for a convention for a 40-year-old series of childrens' books. This was going to be something special.