Renny Rye

If you can tear yourself away from the final of The Piano(!) I am featuring on BBC 4 at 10:00 on Sunday night before a mass screening of 4 hours of Dennis Potter’s and my ‘Karaoke’. (OK, maybe just record it and watch at your leisure later or watch on iPlayer)!

Since when did @bbcr4today shrink to a continuous advert for the Today podcast. Grow up!

So sorry to hear that #HaydnGwynne has died. She was a class act with a sparkling, sardonic eye. I worked with her a few times and would have loved to more. Sad days.

I have banished Twitter from my homepage. The new X symbol looks like some aggressive porno app instead of the calming, life affirming image of a bluebird. The new app is as unappealing and life- demeaning as a cage fight between CEOs. It’s now in an obscure folder on page 3.

Sad to hear Jim Parker has died. That’s two irreplaceable composers gone this year: Chris Gunning died in March. Writing music for film and TV is so underrated. Sessions spent with these two were among the most enjoyable times of my work as a director. Memories to cherish.

What sort of app is @ITVX ? You sit through all the ads but then the max fast forward speed on both @virginmedia and @amazonfiretv app is about 3 times. Really poor.

I know you have to pay to skip ads on @ITVX but it only seems to support x12 fast forwarding during streaming programmes. It used to be much faster. What’s changed?

Farewell to dear Chris Gunning. Terrible news that he’s gone and my thoughts are with his beautiful daughters and partners Annie and Sveta. He was such fun as well as being a great British composer. It feels as though our generation has lost one of its best.

Geronimo! @CoventryBS account closed! And despite starting at 58 in the queue, I only had to wait 16 minutes. It shows how many cutomers must be so frustrated, they just hang up because their system is so appalling. Did I want to open another account asked the lady! No chance.

Is anyone else trying to close a redundant account at the Coventry Building Society @CoventryBS? I've been trying for days with no success. Today's help line queue? Only 35 people waiting. Better than yesterday. Then it was 47!

About says it all!

Now there’s a writer who knew he was pretty good! Mr Chekhov.

I see in it’s infinite wisdom ITV has chosen to show both my #Midsomer Christmas episodes on ITV3 tonight. A seasonal wallow in murder and mayhem!

Rather chuffed to be sharing a page with the true greats of Christmas in the Radio Times!

#ENOWonderfulLife You won’t see a better Christmas show in London anywhere. More Sondheim than Strauss or Glass, the music is uplifting and the staging magical. Not to mention the glorious performances from Ballentine and de Niese.