There's a Food and Drink Lover's Festival on in Brighton at the moment, of which I thoroughly approve. Yesterday I went to see some Thai food sculpture, which was incredible - watermelons carved into huge flowers, baskets made out of whole butternut squashes, improbably delicate rose petals made from all sorts of things. There was also an extravagant continental/organic market where I couldn't afford anything. But since I got to go home and eat fantastically delicious mushroom risotto anyway, this didn't matter.

It's probably a sign that I'm getting old that the highlight of the weekend was a television programme. But this was pretty special: one of the greatest comic actors of our time (Chris Langham) performing as one of the greatest writers (George Orwell). George Orwell: A Life in Pictures was painstaking, innovative documentary the like of which we almost NEVER get to see on terrestrial television any more. Should I be grateful, or annoyed that I don't have BBC4?

09:55

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