Brown was right to do the ITV interview

With an audience of four million at 10.15 and a profile that no party political broadcast could replicate, of course Gordon Brown was right to do the interview with Piers Morgan last night. It showed a side of Brown that the public - and many of those who worked in government - rarely saw and he came across the better for it. To say that he shouldn't have talked about his family tragedies in such circumstances is as absurd as saying that politicians should never engage with mass appeal TV shows or talk to the Saturday supplement of The Times. Of course, one television programme won't change the political weather but it does help to leaven the caricature so assiduously cultivated by David Cameron and his media allies ahead of an election, as even Fraser Nelson recognises.

Shriti's crime: answering the question

Trade Minister Baroness Shriti Vadera has been hauled over the coals for her 'insensitivity' by the Do Nothing Tories for saying she detected the odd shoots of recovery in the economy. There may be some civil servants who will relish the sight of a minister never known to suffer fools gladly coming a cropper. But Shriti's real crime was to repeat the question she was asked.

For the mention of 'green shoots' was first mischievously made by the ITV news interviewer, not Baroness Vadera. Her mistake was to repeat that part of the question in her answer. It is a common problem. Answering 'yes' while thinking through the answer to a tricky question can see headlines 'quoting' you as having said what the interviewer said: doing that on a question on then controversial contraception nearly cost Mary Robinson the Irish Presidential election in 1990.

Media types love to salute ministers for answering the question. But any adviser knows that it is far safer to have your answer prepared and stick to it whatever the interviewer says. As Shriti Vadera now knows, it is generally not a good idea to answer the precise question; it is an even bigger problem when you accept its basic premiss.

Too little news on News on Ten

It looked slick and had more of a professional feel to it than most current ITV news bulletins. But it wasn't clear that the new News at Ten was much more last night. Instead of news, we were treated to a dreary exclusive about a boring doctor who was 'Diana's great love', and who shared a tale about when she popped in for tea; a travelogue from the senior international editor down a hole in Antarctica; and an OTT piece about Treasury frustration from ITN's distinctly lightweight 'political editor' Tom Bradby (bring back Mike Brunson!). None of which could disguise the fact that ITN is no longer what it was, and that it lacks the great reporters of the seventies and eighties. Sir Trevor and Julie Etchingham are good presenters, and benefited from sitting down in front of a desk looking authoritative, but little of the content was really news. Despite his occasionally infuriating biases, I think I'll stick with Jon Snow - a great ITN reporter in his day who would put the present lot to shame - and the still superior Channel 4 News.

Are we witnessing the dumbing-up of television?

After a decade of round-the-clock 'reality' TV shows and schedules hijacked by home and fashion makeover shows, can we really be witnessing a dumbing up of terrestrial television? Tonight sees the return of News at Ten, while last night, BBC 1's schedules included an entertaining adaptation of Flora Thompson's Victorian rural drama, Lark Rise to Candleford, the final episode of Andrew Davies's delightful Sense and Sensibility adaptation and the classy Glenn Close legal drama Damages. Cranford enjoyed audiences to match anything else on TV when it was on. Meanwhile, Big Brother has been exiled to E4. It is true that we are still stuck with a very inferior version of Panorama, and there remains a lot of dross in the schedules; but these must be hopeful signs that the TV bosses have recognised that they underestimated the intelligence of their viewers for too long, and must now make amends. Exiles to BBC 4 should now be free to return to the mainstream (at least occasionally).