Back in the day, long before he was reviving Doctor Who or writing Queer as Folk, Russell “The” Davies wrote a couple of BBC children’s drama series, 1991’s Dark Season and 1993’s Century Falls. Both were excellent pieces of kids’ TV.

Dark Season, which featured a young Kate Winslet among the cast, was, in many ways, Doctor Who in disguise. It featured an eccentric lead character with a couple of sidekicks investigating mysterious goings-on in suburban England. There are two distinict plots: the first involves computers being used to take over schoolchildren’s minds (c.f. new Who episode School Reunion); the latter features a troop of Aryan archaeologists led by Servalan off of Blake’s 7 attempting to obtain a powerful machine buried in the school grounds. These six episodes were, at the time, some of the best CBBC had to offer. It’s a little dated now – some of the clothes are shockingly eighties despite this being the nineties – but still good value. Oh, and it features Brigit Forsyth from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Doctor Who legend Cyril Shaps.

Century Falls was made two years later by largely the same production team. I only saw it on first broadcast so my memory of it is 13 years old, but it was notably darker than its predecessor, using the fantasy medium to deal with issues such as teenage pregnancy. The cast includes Who alumni Eileen Way and Bernard Kay, plus Mary Wimbush from K-9 and Company and The Archers.

I’m looking forward to seeing both series again, because – and this is the reason for this post – they’re coming out on DVD next month, having never been released on VHS. Both Dark Season and Century Falls are released on Monday 17th July and I heartily recommend them.

I have no interest in fashion, as anyone who’s seen me would be able to testify. But nestled away in theguardian‘s G2 supplement each Monday is “Ask Hadley”, which I read every week. She will ease your fashion pain, apparently, but I read it ‘cos it’s funny. Not highbrow humour, but suitably silly and, despite my having no concept of taupe or chiffon, I’m entertained by it. Plus, it’s opposite Doonesbury and the Kakuro so it takes no effort to find it each week. Here’s yesterday’s column.

Gordon Brown is to “re-examine” the £3,000 cap on student top-up fees – i.e., increase it. Universities need more money and apparently charging people who aren’t available for full-time work and who are already paying thousands into the system is attractive to the Chancellor. Top-up fees haven’t even come into effect yet and already the Government is talking about increasing them.

He said the principle of top-up fees, which come into effect this autumn, was “the right one”, because it ensured that students who benefit from higher education must make a financial contribution towards its cost.

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but those who benefit financially from higher education do make a contribution towards its cost. It’s called income tax and it works like this: if you earn more money, you pay more tax. So if, over your lifetime, you earn an extra £400,000 as a graduate – a figure Labour trotted out time and again and a premium that is likely to fall – you pay roughly £90,000 more income tax over the same period. Surely that’s more than enough to fund one three-year course?

“People do not value free goods or services,” say report authors Richard Lambert and Nick Butler.

“It will be less easy for young people to think about higher education as a convenient way of filling time.

“Instead, they will have an incentive to complete their course at a less leisurely pace and they will have to think harder about the costs of dropping out.”

University isn’t free, and it wasn’t before fees were brought in. I left with a degree and student loans alone of £7,000, and that was before tuition fees were introduced. Living costs alone are thousands of pounds a year. Just because we didn’t pay the university directly, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a cost associated with university, and that’s before you consider the opportunity to cost of not going straight from school to work.

As for dropping out, financial hardship is the biggest reason people leave university. The reintroduction of grants was an important step in helping out those from poorer backgrounds, but any system in which a 22-year-old is assessed on the income of their parents has something wrong with it.

This all applies to England, of course: the Chancellor doesn’t speak for the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales.

Today is World Environment Day and via Rob and the Liberal Democrats comes an excellent scheme from the Environment Agency. You sign up for certain environmentally-friendly actions that you can take (thinking globally, acting locally, etc.), and their website keeps track of how much you’ve helped. Suggested green pledges include reusing shopping bags and conserving household water.

You can also refer other people, building a pyramid of pledgees, all of whom commit to reducing their environmental footprint. Click here to see how you can help.