DIRK GENTLY slips back onto BBC 4

Dirk Gently was the great Douglas Adams' creation forever overshadowed by the undisputed work of genius that was The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (whose title, incidentally, was reworked into our own TV reference guide The Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy so thanks for that Douglas).

A standalone pilot episode for a series based on the character of Dirk, a detective who believes in the interconnectedness of all things and therefore whose investigations are somewhat unorthodox appeared in December 2010, but it's taken until now for the following three part series to emerge. This is probably down to show writer Howard Overman having to put episodes of the BBC's own Merlin and E4's Misfits to bed before getting around to this.

The new series starts on Monday March 5th, but might have gone right past us since we haven't seen anything in the way of publicity for it.

Our reaction to the pilot is to be found here and we'll be reviewing the series episodes as we see them.

Doctor Who stole my award

Whilst it's usually the misfits ASBO offenders that are doing all the stealing, it has been reported that they had an award stolen out from under them at the Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards. The prize they should have received was handed to Doctor Who instead.

Apparently there was a 'human error in data entry'. That's a hell of typo from 'Misfits' to 'Doctor Who'. Perhaps it was just a fan making their own judgement call. If so then the 'steps have been taken to ensure thatit cannot happen again' means that someone got sacked for liking Doctor Who over Misfits.

The whole story is reported on the BBC News website.

BAFTA nominates a few genre shows

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts TV nominations are out and there are some genre nominations to be pleased about.

Misfits has a number of nominations, cementing its place as the country's favourite genre show (at least in the eyes of the industry). These include Robert Sheehan for best supporting actor, Lauren Socha for best supporting actress, Best Drama Series and New Media.

BEING HUMAN's scorching third season also gets a nomination in the Best Drama Series category and Matt Smith is nominated for his performance as the 11th Doctor in DOCTOR WHO in the Best Actor Category.

Surprisingly, there are no nominations for either THE DEEP or OUTCASTS (this last bit is ironic).

Want To Write A Hit Show Like Misfits?

Well, if you're anywhere within reach of Nottingham on MARCH 28th then your luck is in because creator/writer Howard Overman will be appearing in a Q&A for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (or Bafta as it likes to be known) in the shire formerly haunted by one Robin Hood.

The venue is the Broadway Cinema on Broad Street, the start time is half pas six in the evening and tickets can be claimed/bought/blagged/obtained by less than legitimate means by visiting the Bafta website http://www.bafta.org/

Whilst you're there, you could ask him from us what went wrong with DIRK GENTLY.