So, there I was this evening, with unusually a free evening and nothing planned…and there’s nothing on television. Apart from Heroes later, but i’ve already recorded that. So I fired up the iPlayer to see if it had anything to offer.

Since I last looked (and apologies if this is old news) they’ve launched a new beta version with a much more comprehensive interface. It makes it much quicker to browse through programmes with a more TV guide like approach. They’ve also made it easier to find multiple episodes of the same programme and group them together. But best of all, it certainly seems like you have to wade through a lot less daytime dreck like Doctors and Flog It! to get to the good stuff.

But as with most software, more choice brings more confusion and the array of new ways to slice and dice the data is, at first at least, quite arresting. Not so bad for me, but I can see my mum, who’s only just getting to grips with the whole TV over IP thing getting a bit of a surprise next time she logs in.

But the thing that really made me smile, and that I really hope is a deft little nod to Spinal Tap from the developers is that the volume control when streaming a programme, goes up to 11. That’s one louder. Marvellous.

There’s something quite sweet about the message that you get from the BBC iPlayer if you’ve yet to download anything. Most software would say something like “0 programmes downloaded” or “Programme Library Empty”, the BBC have gone for something a little more sweet and polite. It gives my inner pedant the same little frisson I get when I see the checkouts at M&S with their signs saying “5 items or fewer.”

On the train down to London this weekend, we were joined by the passengers from several other trains making it, to use Victoria Wood’s wonderful phrase, “nose to nipple” in the carriage.

Fortunately I was already seated, but I did a double take when the guard announced the reason for the overcrowding.

Not, as i’d assumed a broken down train. Instead, trains between York and Doncaster were not running due to a “Cable Theft“, which as excuses go, is a pretty good one.

Much as we may, pardon the pun, rail against the high prices of train tickets in the UK, which are now verging on the obscene. But, you have to have some sympathy from the operators when even the parts of the network they can keep in good repair then get stolen like the lead from church rooftops.