When I read Not Going Out were doing a Christmas Special episode, I was very happy. Love this show, and any excuse for some more of Lee Mack’s fun wordplay is good enough for me. When I read on to see it would be a live show, then I was in two minds. Live shows are good, the additional adrenaline of ‘will they, won’t they mess up’ is an intriguing extra element, and it’s something to talk about whether it goes well or not.

Browsing through the BBC iPlayer, I saw that the final episode of Miranda that aired over Christmas was about to time out. It reminded me that three of my fondly admired sitcoms came to their conclusion this festive period, and surprisingly, all three went out in style. It may be that LOST burned me and that I hold a grudge for too long, but it feels like most TV shows captivate their audiences and then end in disappointment.

When the iPlayer stats first started appearing, they were a one-page document with just a few bits and bobs to take note of. Now, it’s a 20-page pdf full of fascinating figures and statistics. There were a few pages of January’s statistics that I found more interesting than others. Firstly, the average minutes consumed by users per week. That’s just over six months of data and it doesn’t seem to be getting much higher or lower.