Programme looking at issues around television, with items on viewing figures, the use of archive footage, correct pronunciation, and the depiction of gay characters.

This edition of LWT's monthly programme, presented by former Liberal MP John Pardoe, includes an item on how estimates of TV viewing figures are made. Where the BBC stop a representative sample of 2000 people in the street to ask them what they watched the previous day, ITV - needing more accurate information to pass to advertisers - have volunteers use recorder machines and diaries. The item looks at new methods used to capture viewing figures with greater accuracy.

The second item explores debates around the use of archive footage, with particular reference to ITV's The Troubles, and the BBC's Ireland: A History. Historian Taylor Downing argues that archive footage is often of what were deemed to be "news-worthy" events, and can therefore be unrepresentative and reveal the biases of those who made it.

The third item, responding to a point raised by a viewer, looks at the complexities around correct pronunciation, with an example cited of Melvyn Bragg's apparent mispronunciation of Don Juan de Marco - a charge Bragg and interviewed experts dispute.

The final item considers the portrayal of a gay character in LWT's comedy series Agony, and whether the depiction of his suicide reinforced negative tropes.

Programme examining the television business, looking at the problems of
audience ratings figures and discrepancies in them, treatment of a gay
character in a re cent ITV sit-com, and the use of archive film as evidence in
the recent series about Ireland