The Daily Rummage

More rummaging, starting off with the Luke Jackson documentary which was an insight into his family consisting of 7 children all looked after by single mother Jaqui.

Luke, 14 had an elder brother with dyspraxia and dyslexia, as well as a younger brother with ADHD and an even younger brother with a more stronger form of Autism who despite being 6 years old had only just learnt to talk.

There were also three girls in the family who didn't have any learning difficulties, although when Luke was showing the camera crew round the house he seemed to draw attention to the fact that all of his sisters were "popular".

However, Luke had become recognised for being open and encouraging about his learning difficulties and even made a speech about the advantages of having Asperger's Syndrome at a conference on Autism in Birmingham.

One of the things I took interest in was the fact that Luke and one of his brothers ate a gluten free diet containing no wheat or grains of that sort.

I once got put onto a gluten free diet when I was 11 and really didn't like it at all, especially as I eat quite a lot of bread and pasta in a week.

However it's said to reduce certain side effects on Asperger's Syndrome, but in my case it was like saying that Risperdol could reduce my mental health problems two years ago.

Load of bollocks.

Following on from that was an edition of Have I Got News For You from December 2002 and the last one of the current series and the first to feature Jeremy Clarkson as a guest host.

The guests that week were Michael Grade on Ian Hislop's team and Paul Merton's guest was the late Mo Mowlam who was the subject of many jokes by Clarkson about the fact that she beat him in BBC 2's Great Britons poll representing Winston Churchill, whereas Clarkson campaigned for Isumbard Kingdom Brunel.

At the end of the show they did a spoof general knowledge quiz of about the bizarre stories of the year with the first one going like this;

JC: "What has happened to the waxwork of Ian Duncan Smith?"

BUZZ

IH: "It has become leader of the Conservative Party"

The actual answer was nothing, because Ian Duncan Smith was the first leader of the opposition not to have a waxwork made in Madame Tussauds.

There was another question about Bill Clinton getting a standing ovation at a party conference in Blackpool where Clarkson made a joke about him starting a speech with "9/11" then pausing for effect but it was ruined when someone shouted "House!".

I followed on from this with another episode of Pop Idol from the following year where by this time they had reached the re-calls at the Criterion theatre in London where all the succesfull auditionees were asked back.

Two of them appeared in the last series, them being Gareth Gates' sister Nicola who failed her first audition, and Scott Sadari who made it into the final 50.

However both were unsuccesful with Nicola out after the first day and Scott eliminated after the second.

At the beginning all the 100 contestants had to go up to a camera and say why they wanted to be the Pop Idol, unaware that the judges were watching them.

One that was shown was eventual winner Charlie McManus who said that "the pop industry could do with something different, and I'm the one to break the mould".

I don't know how I can follow from that.

There was also another contestant called Wesu, who's girlfriend was expecting a baby and he was worried he would have to drop out at any point which would cost him his position in the competition.

However he ended up in the final 50 and he became a dad a couple of days later.

One contestant who really stood out was Tarek Aziz who was very mouthy and over confident but his rather arrogant displays, slightly remiscent of Darius in the first series of Popstars provided a few laughs and it was on that basis that Simon Cowell put him through to the first set of studio shows.

I'm pretty certain this is the final episode of the series I have on VHS as I more or less lost interest after the studio heats started and as my HND course became more stressful, I was oblivious to the fact that it even existed.

A far cry from the first series where it more or less took over my life, and I doubt that any television series of a similar nature has had that effect on me since.

Simon Cowell on the other hand assumes that he can continue with the same overblown nonsense every year, but his knowledge about television is about the same as what I know about the periodic table.

Although the second series of Pop Idol is a lot more down to earth and less staged and over dramatic than the X Factor is where they try to make every show look is it's the grand final for goodness sake.

But then again even if the audiences are high, it proves that the majority of people watching are bloody lifeless.

Then again anyone reading this could say that I'm rather lifeless if I spend time listening to vintage radio jingles.