This week’s excitement was a trip to rainy Glasgow for a quiz show audition – my ninth, I reckon – for a programme called 1 vs 100. It will be the new Saturday night lottery show so if I get on (no guarantees – they’re seeing about 2,000 people but it wasn’t clear how many they need) it’ll be my first foray into primetime BBC1 telly. (ITV1 is the only terrestrial channel I’ve not been on, but I can’t say it’s something I aspire to, TV snob that I am.) You can read a bit about the show in this press release. Like Deal or No Deal, it’s being made by Endemol and the format has been successful abroad.

The three-hour audition was the longest I’ve ever been to. There were sixty of us and we were given written tests (which were fine) and then short interviews on camera to show our personalities (trickier). I talked about blogging and generally sounded like a geek, but fingers crossed I came across OK. I should find out in September if I’ve got on.

Next Wednesday I have the second of my two auditions, for which I’ll be making my first trip to Leith. You go without for years and then two come along at once. This one will be for Countdown.

Pondering what to put on the box this evening? Tired of soaps? Fear not – there’s plenty of good stuff on tonight, mostly on BBC’s Two and Four.

19:10-20:00
BBC Four: The Avengers (episode “A Surfeit of H2O”)
I expect Alex will fill you in on the detail (et voilà), but look out for Talfryn Thomas (Mr Cheeseman from Dad’s Army) and Geoffrey “Slam in the lamb” Palmer.

20:00-21:00
BBC Two: Dragon’s Den
New series with a couple of new dragons.

21:00-22:00
I’ll probably put a DVD on for this hour, but there’s plenty to keep you entertained: Extras on BBC Two, The League of Gentlemen followed by the first half of Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns on BBC Four, The Two Ronnies on ITV3 or, if you like that sort of thing, Bad Girls on the ratings disaster that is ITV1.

22:00-22:30
BBC Two: Time Trumpet
Armando Iannucci‘s new comedy series, a kind of “I Love the 2000s” from the future. (Watch a preview.)

22:30-23:00
BBC Four: Charlie Brooker’s Screen Wipe
Ascerbic columnist and comedy writer Charlie Brooker says funny stuff about TV.

There you go. Who needs the Radio Times…?

Two fingers to Will Smith, Will Smith and Will Self because that’s me according to Google:

And yet – presumably because other bloggers link me by my first or full name – I’m not even on the first page for Howells. As my boss says, “That’s the problem with ranking.”*

I’m not sure what Google’s description of this blog as “politics, genealogy and food” is suggesting. It seems to have originated here so I’ve submitted a change to remove the reference to food. I wouldn’t want anyone to come here looking for recipes – they’d be terribly disappointed.

(*Let me pre-empt comments of the “I thought the problem with ranking was that you went blind” variety.)

As of today, you can now discover the likelihood of being suddenly slain. The current threat level is SEVERE. The red capitalisation is mandatory. According to the Intelligence.gov.uk website guidance, this means:

Severe – an attack is highly likely

I’m disappointed that the “Intelligence Community” haven’t taken the lead from the LibDems and made us buttons so that we can all display the threat level automatically on our blogs, and thereby keep everyone up to speed of how scared prepared the Government intends us to be.

So, now you know that “an attack is highly likely”, you’re expected to take action. Sticky tape on the windows, that sort of thing.