Shlepp along past the Wapping Project in E1 and you can't fail to notice that something is afoot. Yellow umbrellas hang from a tree, as if a gaggle of Mary Poppins had become ensnared in the branches. Nearby a column of Dan Flavin-like yellow fluorescents hang in the disused accumulator tower, a pool at the bottom reflecting them into infinity. On the building's roof, a shipping forecast intones as a yellow dinghy and a......

What happened to the idea of the summer being a fallow period for telly watchers, resigned to endless repeats of Last Of The Sodding Summer Wine, Columbo and Porridge? When did TV execs wake up and realise that, actually, just because it was light outside, it didn’t necessarily mean that people wanted to spend their evenings (heaven forfend) socialising or (shock horror) going outside? Well, may the eternal lords of the flickering screen be......