It was a tiring day at work, I’d already watched an old (and slightly below-par) episode of Gavin and Stacey, I’d dropped the last cookie in the house in my cup of tea (turning it into a soggy mush), I was in a downward spiral. Gazing over at a pile of unwatched and unopened dvds, my listless eyes fell upon series 1 of ‘Mad Men’. Despite believing myself to be devoid of the energy that I usually invest in a new television series, I blithely decided to give the aliterated show a visual whirl.

Currently finishing airing on BBC2 is HBO’s ‘reconstruction’ of the cop show, ‘The Wire’ (2002-2008), which for me has set a new standard in television drama. Not since ‘The West Wing’ have we seen such a rich and frankly rewarding series.

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Review of British television show ‘Gavin and Stacey’ first published in a January 2009 issue of Spark*, the newspaper of Reading University Students’ Union.

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Review of the first season of hit US television show ‘The West Wing’, article first published in October 2008 issue of Spark*, the newspaper of Reading University Students’ Union.