TV's golden age... I know, I know, that old chestnut again. But we're in one now, apparently.
The Hollywood Reporter has dragged the term up again, after returning from the Television Critics Association event, at which the heads of the US networks all talk to journalists about their new programming line-ups for the autumn.
And it's not just the Reporter: Entertainment Weekly, the Washington Post and the Guardian are also talking about a new TV golden age - therefore it must be true, right?
Not sure about a TV golden age right now, but I do think there's plenty of stuff on that's as good as anything that's gone before, particularly in drama, in terms of quality of writing and production values.
I'm firmly in the Peter Bazalgette camp when it comes to arguments about TV's golden age - I think people who say that there was only one and it's long gone need to ditch the rose tinted specs. I used to love watching It's A Knockout when I was a kid - but I bet it would look decidedly ropey and naff if I was to look at again now.
Times change, styles and techniques change - one thing that came up again and again in BBC4's search for the best TV decade last year in its TV on Trial season was how slow and dated a lot of old programmes, particularly drama, looked when watched again.
There was good and bad TV back in the 60s, 70s and 80s. But people only tend to remember the good. And there's good and bad now - probably more of both, infact, what with so many more channels.
