Danny Wallace: My week in media

Last week I watched...

I've been getting very into Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on More 4 and I'm struggling to understand its cancellation in the States. It uses all the tricks The West Wing did but they all work so well. It made me dig out a bizarre DVD I bought a while ago called Sports Night, also an Aaron Sorkin thing, and it shows how he has developed his craft. I had to watch Jodie Marsh's search for a husband, Totally Jodie Marsh on Living TV.

She has set herself the bizarre task of getting married to any man who applies. So far they've just been chiselled men who grunt a lot, and she gets very angry when anyone suggests she's just doing it for a TV show. She does come across as weirdly likeable, though I definitely won't be applying for the position of her husband myself.

Last week I surfed...

I've been looking at Chortle (www.chortle.co.uk) because this is one of the first years when I haven't been up to the Edinburgh Festival. I miss the atmosphere and the queuing and even the fact that it takes you 23 minutes to get a pint of warm beer. With the podcasts I've been able to find a little of the excitement I'm missing. I usually pop into Graham Linehan's blog, Why That's Delightful (whythatsdelightful. wordpress.com). He wrote Father Ted and The IT Crowd. He finds little nuggets of loveliness on the web and he's introduced me to the delights Serbian rap.

Last week I read...

I really liked the story in The Independent about the Sultan of Brunei. He was getting married for the third time and promised some Australians he would buy a four-million-year-old copy of the Koran off them for £4m. I thought that was quite a statement of love as I got off with buying my wife a ring and a toaster. He agreed to buy it and he hasn't paid. The best thing is that no one can sue him for time wasting or breaking a contract because he's declared himself infallible, which is brilliant as an idea.

Last week I listened to...

This week I was a bit jet-lagged and woke up earlier than normal to hear a show on LBC presented by Steve Allen, who turned out to be the most bitter, cold-hearted presenter I have heard in a long while. He is tediously cynical and incredibly bitchy. I heard him say a few sentences about the McCanns which were unforgivable. Whatever you think of any of the surrounding issues, these people have lost a kid. It's the most terrifying, heart-breaking and awful thing that could be happening to them and he adopted such a blasé, grim and cynical position on the whole thing. I think you'd get more laughs on Iraqi radio.

Danny Wallace goes head-to-head with Anne Robinson in Test The Nation, next Monday on BBC One

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