England in the Age of Improvement by Asa Briggs. It’s part of the Folio History of England series, covering 1783-1867, an odd choice of periodisation meant to cover the first stage of the Industrial Revolution. Very useful for those of us who want to think seriously about economic growth in the Internet Era and its implications for things like the distribution of income.

Meanwhile, the other big news on my cultural activities is what I’m not watching any more. I’ve only ever watched two TV series on a regular basis: Doctor Who from its inception in the early 60s to sometime around 1980 and The Bill from the late 80s until now. I don’t make any claims for either, other than they had something that managed to hook lots of people including me. I can’t exactly recall when and why I stopped watching the Doctor in his endless fight against Daleks, the Master etc, but I’ll record my abandonment of The Bill as of today. It’s been becoming steadily soapier in recent years in an attempt to extend to a broader audience. At first I actually quite liked the changes, but it’s now reached the point where almost every character is engaged in sexual intrigue with some other character (even Reg had a fling a couple of series ago). And the plot credibility, never ironclad, is now non-existent.

What this means of course, is that I’m in the market for a new TV addiction, and asking for reader suggestions. I’ll be interested to see what interaction through my blog suggests to others about what I might like on the box.

Finally, declarations of this kind are frequent, and often followed by a quiet slink back to the drug of choice. Anyone want to offer odds on this?

Update Quite a lot of my regular commentators turn out to share my attitude to The Bill, and a few even shared my predilection for the Doctor. Does anyone want to offer confessions about alternative TV addictions? Is there anyone out there willing to claim they don’t have any?