Pomona Rewind

When the analogue era drew to a close, American and Scandanavian drama reigned supreme. However for much of the analogue years some of the best drama was closer to home. Sometimes political, sometimes funny, the drama series has enabled the British TV to nurture some of the greatest writing, directorial and acting talent to hit the small and big screen. Writers like Alan Plater, Dennis Potter and Alan Bennett, directors like Jon Amiel, Michael Winterbottom and Martin Campbell and actors like Julie Walters, Sir Alec Guinness and Ray McAnally have all shone and produced some of the finest TV series we have ever seen.  Here's my pick of the analogue crop. T INKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY John Le Carre's classic 1974 spy novel was last year turned into a gripping movie by Tomas Alfredsen, starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley. However 32 years before, veteran actor Sir Alec Guinness turned in an equally compelling performance on BBC1 as the spy call

Four years ago, the Huffington Post claimed Barack Obama had approached the Presidential Debates like chess while his opponent, Senator John McCain appeared to be playing checkers. Last night's third and final Presidential debate of 2012 was, at times, like a game of chess with each candidate trying to anticipate and block attacks from the other. However, it was a game of chess whose players had clearly forgotten to take off the previous week's boxing gloves. Occasionally, amid all the smart defensive strategies, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney seemed to want to lean over the table, sweep their pawns aside and land punches on the other. Korchnoi and Karpov, this wasn't. The debate covered a wide range of issues from Libya and the death of the US Ambassador, to the nuclear threat posed by Iran, the relationship with Israel and trading with China. But as MSNBC's Chris Matthews pointed out afterwards there were other key foreign policy issues which were not

Last night was the night Barack Obama had to come out fighting. After his insipid performance in the first Presidential debate in Denver, the President needed to look as though he was up for a scrap with Mitt Romney. He didn't disappoint. Gone was the Barack Obama who looked during the first debate like he was on a half tank. Gone was the long winded, professorial candidate. Gone was the Obama who could not eyeball his opponent. In the more combative arena of the Town Hall debate, this Obama looked like he had been sparring all week with Joe Biden. The town hall format of Presidential Debate offers no hiding places. There are plenty of opportunities to slip up in substance and style - remember Al Gore's attempts to intimidate George W Bush or John McCain's prowling around the stage in 2008? There are also plenty of opportunities for the candidates to score on style and show voters just how empathetic they can be. On that front, Mitt

There's an urban legend that when President Kennedy went to Berlin and wowed Germans by declaring "Ich Bin Ein Berliner", what he actually said was "I am a jelly doughnut". While this claim is hotly disputed, the comedian Eddie Izzard uses the story to demonstrate that in the TV age, politics is "70 per cent how you look, 20 per cent how you sound and 10 per cent what you say". If Izzard's rule were to apply to last night's Presidential Debate in Denver, then Barack Obama was well and truly outclassed by his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. Throughout the debate, Governor Romney looked the hungrier of the two candidates. From the moment the debate got underway, the Republican, who has been on the ropes in recent weeks, confidently looked the President in the eye as he went on the offensive. By way of contrast, President Obama tended to look away from his opponent, fixing his gaze either on the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer or do