Air time

For those of you wondering why the TV listings have disappeared from the sidebar of the blog, I find I just couldn't keep up! It would have been quicker to list programmes that don't have medical content. With the media's ongoing obsession with weight, it was possible last week to channel-hop between a documentary about a treatment centre for anorexic children, obese Brits trying to survive on unappetising bush food in the Kalahari, and the tacky glamour-fest that is 'America's Next Top Model' where most of the girls looked like they ought to be in that anorexia treatment centre. Mesmerising as this all is, I have had to resolve to give up TV or face shelling out exorbitant student fees again next year because I won't have finished my MA.

Some programmes feel just too relevant to miss though, at at least one can type up bibliographies while listening to the radio. There is a wonderful series on the history of modern medicine on Radio 4 at 3.45 pm on Monday afternoons. When it started with a poem on the joys of bloodletting, I knew I was going to like its slant.

I notice a new medical sitcom started on Channel 5 tonight at 6.30. Called 'Out of Practice', it's about a family of doctors. It's on every weekday. Having children to feed precludes watching TV at that hour so I wouldn't be tempted even if I didn't have a dissertation to write, but please do post a review if you do catch the show. Similarly, if anyone has half an hour to spend a week, sifting out the medical shows from the TV schedules, the job of updating the sidebar is up for grabs!