Shortly after wrecking my vocal chords doing karaoke in a bar near Tower Bridge on Saturday night, I strolled up to the bridge itself only to find traffic halted and the bascules raised – something I’d never come across before (although it happens around 1,000 times a year).

Whipping out my cameraphone, I shot this short video of the bridge closing.

Very sad today to hear of the death of Verity Lambert at the age of 71. Verity was the very first producer of Doctor Who when it first aired exactly 44 years ago today.

She was the first female BBC producer and the youngest – a year younger than I am now – when she took charge of steering such a ground-breaking drama serial through its first years. Many of the elements that featured in that first episode are present in the series today, so it’s no understatement to say that without her we probably wouldn’t have the hugely successful show we still have today.

Alex has written a lovely blog post already, and Russell The Davies’s tribute is worth repeating:

“There are a hundred people in Cardiff working on Doctor Who and millions of viewers, in particular many children, who love the programme that Verity helped create.

“This is her legacy and we will never forget that.”

As it’s Doctor Who’s birthday, I was due to head to the pub anyway to celebrate with The Fans. Tonight, we’ll be toasting Verity.

One of things the Liberal Democrats are trying out as part of the current leadership election is a video hustings on YouTube. Anyone can submit a video of themselves asking a question and five of these will be put to the two candidate, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, who will respond via video.

You shouldn’t need anything more advanced than a camera phone that can handle video to record yourself asking a question. Here’s the introduction to the hustings from the party’s Chief Executive (and Acting Returning Officer) in what turned out to be one of the most watched videos on the UK YouTube site in the last week.

To submit a question, visit the video response page on YouTube.

Thank you to Lord Bonkers for drawing my name from his hat and thereby selecting me as one of the winners of a copy of the Taking Liberties DVD. And thank you to Jonathan Calder for running the competition.

I didn’t get to see the film at the cinema, so I’m looking forward to it!