The Peter Guillam question is simple: to his disappointment and ours, Richard Dillane wasn't available for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He's back as Guillam in The Honourable Schoolboy (Sundays 24, 31 January, 7 February 2010), and I very much hope he'll be free next March for Smiley's People (Sundays 4, 11, 18 April 2010).
As for change of tone: I suspect there'll always be slight differences of style and approach between different directors - Steve Canny did this one, Marc Beeby and I did the previous ones. This aside, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy seems to me pretty much of a piece with the previous. Plus there's continuity of casting - Guillam aside - and it's the same writer (Shaun McKenna) who did two of the four earlier books, A Murder of Quality and The Looking Glass War.
Next week is Archers Week10:38am on 23 Nov 2009Good point @Boilerplated. Since The Archers team operates with what looks to me like totally airtight secrecy around storylines I think it's unlikely that I'll even learn anything that might constitute a spoiler but I take your point - so no spoilers here! Likewise I'll try to keep cast pics off the blog - I'll publish them on Flickr or Twitter and link to them from here - so click at your peril!
An open post - what would you like to see on the blog?1:28pm on 20 Nov 2009Big_Dave Great ideas. I do aim to get more sport here on the blog but, of course, the sports reporters and commentators have some pretty good blogs of their own (some of the most successful at the BBC) so the 5 live blog isn't the automatic outlet for their writing. I'll see what I can achieve.
I think the BBC is present on Facebook and Twitter because that's where our customers are. Many millions of licence fee-payers are on Facebook now. For the BBC to ignore it would be a bit like sticking to the wireless because that television thing will never catch on (and I should point out that the Twitter account mentioned in a comment above was actually my personal account and nothing to do with the BBC).
And I do want to urge a bit of patience - I want the people who make the decisions to come here and answer questions and they will do so but not always on the day I ask.
And although I'm sure you would be able to do my job properly I'll only yield to you if you promise I can have yours :-).