One of the problems of the length and hecticness of a autumn party conference is missing your favourite programmes on TV. Any television we do catch tends to be news coverage of the conference itself – and when I get back home (just as when I get back from a long day at work) I rarely want to watch politics.

Fortunately, as I don’t have a DVD recorder or a working VHS, the time-shifting iPlayer (they are pretty much all BBC) comes to the rescue. So despite the sun and Open House London outside, I’m working my way through my downloads.

I’ve got two episodes of Who Do You Think You Are?: Ainsley Harriott (which I’m halfway through) and David Suchet. There’s an episode of BBC Three’s sketch show The Wrong Door (with one more probably still to download), and the first episode of the new quiz show Only Connect.

There are two politics-related programmes: President Hollywood, which is excused because of its West Wing content, and Straight Talk with Simon Hughes which I downloaded because I didn’t know it had been on and which I may or may not ever get round to watching.

Back to Ainsley Harriott then…