TV starlet ain't half hot mum

The Australian Defence Department is investigating allegations that television celebrity Tania Zaetta had sex with special forces soldiers during a recent tour of war-ravaged Afghanistan. The high-level document says that Zaetta had relations with troops at the Australian base in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Oruzgan province, last month. Pictures and a video were said to have been taken. It was revealed that the unsubstantiated claim was made by veteran rock singer Angry Anderson. Zaetta and Anderson were the two headline acts on a 17-day tour of the Middle East that staged concerts for Australian soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The department has been severely embarrassed after admitting it broke privacy rules by naming Zaetta - who has denied the allegation - in a briefing document to the Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon. Australia’s military was in retreat last night, apologising to Zaetta for the leak, and ordering an immediate inquiry into how the document — officially referred to as a “hot issues brief” — became public. The federal Opposition demanded Mr Fitzgibbon apologise for the "gross" and "extraordinary" invasion of the TV star's privacy. Spokesman Nick Minchin, who travelled on a transport aircraft with Zaetta and Anderson during the tour, has demanded an explanation from Mr Fitzgibbon. "This is a gross invasion of her privacy," he said on Fairfax radio today. "It is very unfortunate and I think Mr Fitzgibbon, as the Defence Minister, should come out today and explain exactly how this has occurred. He should apologise publicly to her. This is an extraordinary invasion of her privacy. He has got some answers to provide."

Zaetta, who has appeared on Baywatch and Mission Implausible, a British pay-TV show, strenuously denied the allegations and said there had been little opportunity to be alone with any soldier, even if she had wanted to be. She described the claim as "hurtful". "That is the absolute first I've heard of it. That is the most ridiculous story I've ever heard about my life - and I've heard plenty over the years in this industry," she said. "It takes the cake. I've just done this most amazing life-changing experience, been to the most unbelievable places and for this to be said, it's very hurtful."

Zaetta was the co-host of 1990s television stunt show Who Dares Wins, which is also the motto of the Australian SAS. She is also a popular film actress in India; starring recently in Charlie’s Angels-style hit, Mr. Black, Mr. White. “How does a supposed document . . . that I don’t know about get leaked in the first place — that’s a little bit concerning about the security of the country,” she said. “It’s complete lies . . . apart from being hurtful, it’s damaging to a woman’s career, to her reputation.” The Government now faces a potential compensation payout after she sought legal advice over the claims.

Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, reluctantly commented on the scandal, which drew criticism from the opposition conservative Liberal Party over invasion of privacy. “These matters are under investigation within the Defence Department and I will leave it for that investigation to reach its own conclusions,” Mr Rudd said.

Artists on the tour - dubbed "Tour de Force - Middle East 9" were warned they would breach Defence Force regulations if they fraternised with troops. Another performer confirmed the entertainers had been told that they would breach regulations if they consorted with the troops. “I have heard of quickies but I have never heard of anything that quick . . . a tour like that is hard work,” John Clinton, of the country rock band the Wolverines, said.

Anderson, lead singer of rock band Rose Tattoo, told The Daily Telegraph he had no knowledge of any complaint. But the document says the secretary of the Defence force's entertainment division "was informed yesterday by Mr Anderson that he had been told by SF special forces troops whilst at Tarin Kowt that Ms Zaetta had sex with them and they had the photos and video to prove it."

"The issue was not raised by Mr Anderson during the tour. The tour CO commanding officer was aware that Mr Anderson did not think highly of Ms Zaetta, often criticising her," the document says. A Department of Defence spokesman confirmed that an investigation into the allegations was underway and that statements would be taken from those who participated on the tour.

Anderson, who said he is a member of the Forces Advisory Committee on Entertainment, said he had not made a complaint about Zaetta. "I don't know where that came from. I don't get into personal or petty dislikes, particularly when it could hamper or have a detrimental effect on a tour," he said. "I don't know Tania very well. As far as I could tell she conducted herself in a very professional manner. It's two weeks away, it's pretty intense and I pretty much kept myself to myself." Anderson said he had formed a friendship with a male comedian during the tour. "I guess I could be accused of being homosexual. I was often seen in his company."

The document says all personnel on the tour were briefed on Defence force policy on fraternising with troops 10 days before they flew to the Middle East. Under a heading "Talking Points" - briefing notes given to ministers as suggestions for handling controversial issues in public - the document suggests the minister say: "I'm aware of the allegation and understand that an investigation is currently being conducted.

In interviews given to publicise the tour, which was filmed by the ABC's Australian Story and aired over the past two weeks, Zaetta said: "I'm single and there has been a lot of teasing that I am going into a place where they haven't seen girls for a long time." Just before the tour left, she said about touring the Middle East: "If you can't get a date out of there then you've got no hope."

Commanding Officer of the tour Lieutenant Colonel Greg McCauley said he could not comment and referred inquiries to the Department of Defence's public affairs division. Sources on the tour said they had no knowledge of any Defence investigation and were surprised that an allegation had been made by Angry Anderson.

Monty Don recovers from stroke

The television presenter and gardening writer Monty Don is stepping down from Gardeners' World after suffering a minor stroke, the BBC said yesterday. The 52-year-old has been absent from the screen for the past six weeks following the stroke and now intends to take "gardening leave" over the summer while he makes a full recovery.

A spokesman for the BBC said: "Monty Don has decided to stand down as the main presenter of Gardeners' World. Monty has presented the series for the past five years but has been off our screens for the past six weeks as a result of a minor stroke. "Although he is making a good recovery he feels unable to commit to regular filming for a while." The spokesman added that Don would be "sorely missed by viewers and the production team".

Don has appeared on Gardeners' World for five years, and this year also presented Around the World in 80 Gardens, a horticultural odyssey which took 18 months to film. Don and his crew visited locations from the Arctic to Australia, to profile gardens - and their creators - on every continent.

In a statement yesterday, Don said: "I am proud to have led Gardeners' World for the past five years and have enjoyed every minute of sharing my passion with the programme's viewers. I intend to take some gardening leave for the rest of the summer to make a full recovery and so that I am ready to tackle new projects."

A self-taught horticulturalist, Don also wrote a long-running column for the Observer, often straying beyond gardening to discuss personal issues such as his own experiences with depression and seasonal affective disorder. He is the author of a number of popular gardening books including 'The Sensuous Garden' and 'The Complete Gardener'.

He began his television career as the resident gardener on This Morning before going to present a string of Channel 4 series including Don Roaming and Lost Gardens. He lives with his wife and three children in Herefordshire.

BBC mix-up over verdict in Nisah Patel-Nasri murder trial

The BBC has landed itself in hot water for another on-air gaffe today after the BBC News channel mistakenly announced that a verdict had been reached in the trial of the men accused of murdering special constable Nisah Patel-Nasri. Just after 11am today, the BBC News channel broadcast what it claimed was a "breaking news" story about the trial of the suspects in the case of the murder of Patel-Nasri, who was killed on her doorstep in north London in 2006. Today's inaccuracy is the third in a week for BBC News.

BBC presenter Jane Hill told viewers there was news in from the Old Bailey that a verdict had been reached. The BBC then announced the supposed verdict on air and on a "strapline" on screen. After a few minutes Hill said there was some "confusion" at the Old Bailey and that the BBC would bring more news when they had it.

Hill's co-presenter Tim Wilcox then said they would move on to something on "stronger grounds" and the breaking news strapline disappeared. However, sources at the Old Bailey said the courtroom was locked at the time and the jury was out considering its verdict in the Patel-Nasri case on its fourth day of deliberations.

It has not been an easy few days for BBC News – which, like other broadcasters, has found its resources stretched by covering the disasters in Burma and China. On Tuesday the BBC admitted that a factory making Adolf Hitler dolls that it told viewers was part of the rise of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine was actually located in Taiwan. The BBC apologised for the mistake, which it broadcast on television and online on April 23.

On Friday last week it made an on-air apology after it broadcast a picture the previous day which it claimed was of dozens of people killed by the devastating Burmese cyclone, but which instead was taken in Sumatra during the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We wrongly reported that a verdict had been delivered in the Nisha Patel-Nasri murder trial. The mistake was realised very quickly and a live retraction aired soon after."

Elsewhere, The BBC has apologised on air and agreed to pay legal costs over an allegedly defamatory episode of BBC1 forensic drama Waking the Dead. A recent storyline in the hit show featured a villain who had a similar name and background to a former Guards officer, now security boss, Jonathan Garratt.

The episode of Waking the Dead, 'Duty and Honour', broadcast three weeks ago on BBC1, revolved around a corrupt former Guards officer called John Garret who helped set up security firm Apx Solutions – a company which specialised in working in Iraq. As well as the Waking the Dead character having a similar sounding name and background to him, Garratt's firm Erinys is one of a just a few British security companies working out in Iraq. In addition, the fictional John Garret was played by Rupert Graves, who is said to have a similar appearance and voice to Garratt. Jonathan Garratt's name is also often shortened to John.

However, unlike Garratt, the Waking the Dead character enters into a corrupt arrangement with a local Iraqi criminal, commits a murder and authorises another killing. After seeing the episode and receiving phone calls from people who had seen the programme, commenting on some of the "striking" similarities in background between him and the fictional John Garret, Garratt began legal proceedings against the BBC, claiming defamation.

Garratt's lawyer, media specialist David Price from David Price Solicitors & Advocates, requested an apology be broadcast as soon as possible. Two apologies were broadcast on BBC1 this week, immediately after Monday and last night's episodes of Waking the Dead, which were both watched by more than 6 million viewers. The BBC apologised for "any embarrassment caused" and said John Garret was "entirely fictional" and "was not intended to bear any similarity to Jonathan Garratt".

Price is also seeking for a statement based on the apology broadcast on BBC1 to be read out in court and for the BBC to pay "substantial damages", claiming that "considerable damage has been caused to our client's reputation". The BBC told Price that the matter was a coincidence. But he said he was surprised at the level of coincidence in the drama.

"We're waiting for an explanation as to how this happened. It does seem remarkable. We don't know if it was cock-up or conspiracy but the level of similarities is extraordinary," he added. "We assume there was some level of negative checking by the BBC before the programme went out." The BBC had not responded to requests for comment at time of publication.

It is not the first time Waking the Dead has courted controversy. Last year Roman Catholic sect Opus Dei complained the drama had misrepresented some of its members – a claim the BBC rejected.

Erinys International and Garratt are not unknown to the media and have had some coverage in the press. In an interview in 2004 with the Independent on Sunday, Garratt called for international regulation for private security guards.

A BBC spokeswoman said the corporation had no comment at this stage about costs and damages. "The BBC carried out a number of checks (as is usual practice with such dramas) to clear the fictional character name John Garret prior to filming Waking The Dead: Duty And Honour," she added. "Following the broadcast of this episode, the BBC received a letter from solicitors representing Jonathan Garratt.The checks we had carried out did not pick up the alternative spelling of Mr Garratt's name. We were happy in these circumstances to apologise and make clear that the character, John Garret, as with all dramas like this, was entirely fictional and was not intended to bear any similarity to Jonathan Garratt."

CBBC shows set to get kids wriggling and voting

Digital channel CBBC is to make a 13-part food series called Gastronuts that will encourage children to stew worms, catch farts in jars and bake toenail cakes. Fronted by Stefan Gates, the presenter of BBC2's Cooking in the Danger Zone, the series aims to educate children about the way food is grown, made, shaped and marketed.

Questions that Gates and his team of junior Gastronuts will examine include "should we eat insects?", "why don't we eat turkey eggs?" and "what would happen if I didn't fart?", according to the BBC. Other promised activities include eating scorpions, cooking with a JCB and eating dog food. Gastronuts is being made by Objective, the independent producer behind Channel 4 comedy Peep Show and Derren Brown's TV output.

"Gastronuts will encourage children to dabble in the science of food and nutrition, guided by intrepid expert Stefan Gates," said the CBBC controller, Anne Gilchrist, who commissioned the show. "It's not a cookery show and it's not about recipes but it will leave no scone unturned in the search for answers to the weird questions every child has about the food on their plates."

Andrew O'Connor, the chief executive of Objective, will executive produce the show alongside CBBC's Alison Gregory. In addition, Gilchrist has also commissioned Zodiak Television-owned independent producer Diverse to make a CBBC series focusing on a search to find a leader among British children. The 10-part series Election will whittle down applicants to a shortlist of 10 children in the first episode and present a set of challenges to the candidates. The winner will be chosen in the final episode, but the means of voting has not yet been decided according to a BBC spokeswoman.

Gilchrist said: "What does it take to be popular and persuade people to vote for you - is it amazing policies or a friendly demeanour and skilful communication skills? CBBC viewers are about to find out in this exciting new series - democracy in action for six- to 12-year-olds." Election is being executive produced by Gregory for CBBC and by Matt Paice and Roy Ackerman for Diverse.

Both programmes are expected to air on CBBC later this year.

Whishaw to star in BBC thriller

The BBC is to broadcast a drama from Hawking writer Peter Moffat, starring Ben Whishaw as a young man imprisoned for murder despite protesting his innnocence. The five-part drama, called Criminal Justice and due to be shown on BBC1, features Whishaw, star of the recent film Perfume, as Ben Coulter, who wakes to find that a woman he has just slept with has been stabbed to death.

Whishaw's character is unable to remember what happened and the drama follows his life in prison and his encounters with the criminal justice system. His co-stars include Pete Postlethwaite as a hardened criminal called Hooch and Bill Paterson as the policeman investigating the murder. Rome actress Lindsay Duncan plays Ben's defence barrister in the drama, which has been commissioned by the BBC Fiction controller, Jane Tranter, and will be shown in the summer.

Kate Harwood, the BBC head of series and serials, said: "This is not a prison, legal or police drama. Peter Moffat has created something beyond these labels. He has delivered an exceptional and audacious piece of writing – full of colour, texture and humour. This is a combative, insightful, and sophisticated look at the criminal justice system."

Former barrister Moffat's previous dramas have included the BBC2 film Hawking, about scientist Stephen Hawking, and the BBC1 series Cambridge Spies, as well as the critically lauded but short-lived legal series North Square for Channel 4. His forthcoming dramas include BBC1's Einstein And Eddington, starring David Tennant and Andy Serkis.

RDF profits hit by Crowngate affair

RDF Media, the independent producer behind Wife Swap, has reported a dramatic fall in profits in its first full year set of financial results since the Crowngate affair last summer. Profit before tax for the year ended January 31, 2008 was £2m - two-thirds less than the £6.2m profit figure for RDF's previous financial year.

Both ITV and the BBC slapped a commissioning freeze on RDF for a period after it emerged in July last year that promotional footage for a BBC documentary about the Queen had been misleadingly edited. The promo clip, shown to journalists at a BBC1 programme launch, appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz but in fact she had been walking in.

Stephen Lambert, the RDF creative director, accepted responsibility for the misleadingly edited footage and resigned. The BBC1 controller, Peter Fincham, also resigned over the Crowngate affair.

Richard Eyre, the RDF chairman, said the company's strong performance in the US had helped offset the lost business in the UK last year. "It would be an understatement to say that the events of the summer have cast a shadow over the full-year performance," Eyre added. "However, I am pleased to report that overall group revenues rose 21.5% to £120.6m. Year-on-year UK production revenues were effectively flat for well documented reasons, but US production revenues posted a 93.2% increase, early justification for our investment in this division."

ITV ended its commissioning freeze in November and the BBC in March and the company has been hired to produce 100 episodes of Way to Blue, a pre-school children's series for digital channel CBeebies to be broadcast in 2009.

Gross profit was up 16% to £35.5m, including a 104% rise in US gross profit and a 100% rise in gross profit from exploitation of intellectual property - a key part of RDF's growth strategy. However, margins fell because of higher operating costs, with overheads increasing year on year by 29% to £26m.

The company said it had expanded its sales and acquisition teams and invested in infrastructure ahead of growth that did not occur because of the Crowngate commissioning hiatus in the UK. Gross margin in the UK content division fell year on year from 27% to 22%, while gross profit margin in the rights division was 24%, down from 29% the year before.

Last month it emerged that a consortium including RDF founder David Frank and other members of the company's senior management team had made a buyout offer to the board, though analysts have warned shareholders would be unlikely to accept an offer below the 144p a share at which the company was floated. An RDF spokeswoman said today there was no further news on the buyout offer.

RDF shares, which are traded on AIM, were worth as much as 250p before the Crowngate affair but fell to a year low of 94.5p. The shares have rallied since the buyout offer emerged and yesterday closed at 127.5p.

BBC reveal two new dramas

Atonement actor Gina McKee and Jeremy Northam, who was last seen in The Tudors, have signed up for BBC1's hard-hitting drama about a family torn apart when the husband downloads child pornography. Fiona's Story, which has echoes of the case involving The Thick of It actor Chris Langham, is based on "extensive research", according to the BBC.

McKee, who has also appeared in The Street and Tsunami, will play a mother who battles to keep her family together after her husband, played by Northam, who also starred in Gosford Park, is accused of downloading indecent images of children. The 90-minute one-off programme, being made by BBC Scotland, has been written by the newcomer Kate Gabriel. Fiona's Story will be produced by He Kills Coppers' David Boulter and executive produced by Matthew Read.

Filming begins today in Glasgow for four weeks, with broadcast expected at the end of the year or early 2009. Anne Mensah, the head of drama for BBC Scotland, said: "Fiona's Story is an amazing piece of writing. It has an emotional intensity at its heart which captivates everyone who reads the script." Boulter added: "Fiona's Story is the heartbreaking tale of a marriage breaking down. Its power lies in writer Kate Gabriel's original voice, which has attracted top-level talent across the board."

Langham served three months in prison last year after being found guilty of 15 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

Elsewhere, the BBC has confirmed that it is also developing a biographical drama based on the life of the legendary Daily Mirror journalist Marje Proops. The as-yet-uncast drama is likely to be aired on BBC4 if it gets the green light and is understood to be an in-house BBC drama production.

Proops' own autobiography, her 1975 book Pride, Prejudice and Proops (Time Remembered), is likely to provide source material for the script, which is still in development. The drama is also expected to rely on information contained in Angela Patmore's 1992 biography of the journalist, which claimed that she had a long-standing love affair while married to Sidney Proops.

Proops became a journalist in 1939 and joined the Daily Mirror as a fashion journalist. She later became famous for writing the Dear Marje advice column for the paper, which was accompanied by a trademark photograph of her clenching a pen between her teeth. She was made an OBE in 1969 and continued writing her Mirror column until her death at the age of 85.

The development of the drama follows a successful run of one-off autobiographical dramas on BBC4. BBC4's biopics, which aired in a season called The Curse of Comedy, examined the lives of figures including the entertainer Hughie Green, who was played by Trevor Eve, and another about Tony Hancock, who was played by Ken Stott. Another about comedian Frankie Howerd starred David Walliams as the comedy actor, while a fourth examined the troubled relationship between Steptoe and Son actors Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, who were played by Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis respectively.

A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that the Marje Proops project was in development.

Hollywood private eye faces life in jail

A self-proclaimed "private eye to the stars", Anthony Pellicano, was found guilty yesterday of 76 counts of illegal activity, including unauthorised wiretapping, intimidation and bribing police in a case that laid bare the seedy side of Hollywood. Pellicano, 64, was found guilty by a jury in a Los Angeles federal court of all but one of the charges brought against him and may spend the rest of his life in prison. Four co-defendants were also found guilty of supporting him in his illegal ventures.

Pellicano acted on behalf of several powerful clients, helping them to avoid criminal prosecutions, deal with messy divorces and secure business deals. In tape recordings played to the court of conversations he had made himself, he told his clients he would make their problems go away for a non-refundable retainer of $25,000 and upwards. All but a few of those clients have never been charged - some received promises of immunity from prosecution in exchange for evidence, others argued that they had no knowledge of his illegal methods.

The case was a culmination of a six-year investigation into Pellicano's practices by the FBI that began in 2002 when a reporter for the Los Angeles Times found a dead fish on the bonnet of her car, the windscreen smashed and a note saying "STOP". The FBI linked the threat to the fact that the reporter, Anita Busch, had been writing unfavourable pieces about Michael Ovitz, a powerful Hollywood agent and former co-president of Walt Disney. Ovitz employed Pellicano to help him deal with two people who were suing his company, as well as with Busch and another reporter.

The FBI investigation unveiled an enormous criminal network deployed by Pellicano on his clients' behalf. He engaged in widespread wiretapping of conversations, including those of Sylvester Stallone. He bribed police and other officials to run illegal database searches of, among others, Gary Shandling of the Larry Sanders Show fame and the Saturday Night Live actor Kevin Nealon.

The prosecution, which relied on witnesses including Farah Fawcett and Steven Segal, presented the jury with evidence of racketeering and death threats. Prosecutor Dan Saunders portrayed it as a case about illegal behaviour, not glamour and glitz. "This case is about corruption, cheating, greed, arrogance and the perversion of the justice system. It just happened to take place in Hollywood," he said.

Seven people pleaded guilty to charges related to the case before Pellicano's trial began. The most prominent was John McTiernan, director of Die Hard and other action movies, who was heard on tape in conversation with Pellicano during which the detective discussed wiretapping a film producer. Another casualty was Sandra Carradine, the former wife of the Oscar-winning actor Keith Carradine.

Several big names employed Pellicano, but have avoided any charges. Apart from Ovitz, they include the celebrated entertainment lawyer Bert Fields and Brad Grey, the head of Paramount studios. Grey used the services of Pellicano to target the comedian Garry Shandling, who was suing him for $100m. Shandling said Pellicano ran a smear campaign against him.

Meanwhile, the husband of an Emmy award-winning make-up artist was arrested last night, hours after human remains were found in woodland. David Chenery-Wickens, 51, is being questioned by detectives investigating the disappearance of 48-year-old Diane Chenery-Wickens in January. He had previously been arrested on suspicion of her murder and his police bail was extended to May 30 pending further inquiries.

A woman walking her dog found the body in woodland near Little Horsted, Uckfield, East Sussex. Mrs Chenery-Wickens' family has been informed of the discovery. Mrs Chenery-Wickens, who worked on such shows as The League of Gentlemen and Casualty, was reported missing by her husband on January 24.

Weinstein Co. goes down to Fraggle Rock

The Weinstein Co. is taking Fraggle Rock to the big screen! Jim Henson's classic series will become a live-action musical, directed by Hoodwinked! director Cory Edwards. The original show premiered on HBO in 1983 and ran five seasons.

The Weinsteins, determined to get more cozy and "family-friendly" recently, are probably banking on a blockbuster opening, since the first three seasons were recently released on DVD to big sales. According to Variety, "core characters Gogo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red [will be taken] outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens."

There will apparently be puppets and humans in the show but when we first heard this story, we couldn't help but wonder which actors would play the puppets. We think Carrot Top would make a good Red. And former Hobbit Sean Astin might make a good Wembley. That kind of movie might send kids screaming from the theatre.

The deal furthers the relationship between TWC and the Hoodwinked! creative team. Edwards is re-teaming with Hoodwinked! co-writer Tony Leech on the animated alien adventure Escape From Planet Earth, on which Leech is making his directing debut.

Edwards is separately developing a live-action feature adaptation of Cedar Fair's Halloween Haunt franchise, designed to be shot in 3-D by Kerner Optical and produced by Davis Entertainment, Dave Phillips and Tracey Edmonds. That picture is looking for a backer. "One of our main priorities when we first launched the Weinstein Company was to feature a broad range of family-friendly franchises like Fraggle Rock, " Weinstein said.

Australians do give a XXXX over Ramsay's kitchen expletives

As the country that taught the cricketing world how to sledge, Australia has not been known for its sensitivity to bad language. Swearing, at least among friends or colleagues, is part of the everyday vernacular. But the country seems to be losing its sense of humour over the expletive-filled outbursts of Gordon Ramsay on his reality television shows which are being shown on prime time TV. Yesterday Australia's Catholic church became the latest to complain, saying that the chef's shows should be taken off air or moved to a later time slot.

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen are broadcast three nights a week in Australia at 8.30pm and 9.30pm, when many children have yet to go to bed. One episode recently featured the Michelin-starred chef using the F word more than 80 times and the C word twice. The bad language has already prompted calls for the country's broadcasting code of conduct to be reviewed. "There can be no excuse for vilification of this sort. We conclude that this episode should never have been aired on Australian television," the church in the southern city of Adelaide said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry which is investigating standards in television.

Schools and parents groups have also lodged complaints, with the principal of one Melbourne school advising parents to ban their young children from watching them. Lesley McCarthy of Flemington Primary School said bad language in the playground had increased since the British chef's shows have been showing on TV. "It's a really big concern," she said. "If the children see one of their heroes in the media swearing, then they think it's OK. It's the same with our football stars."

Australia's Channel Nine is broadcasting the programmes and says it has no plans to move them to a later time slot. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares has become the station's number one hit. A bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry is hearing evidence on the frequency and use of swearing on Australian television and whether tighter regulation is needed. Currently, swearing is permitted on Australian TV if it is deemed important to a storyline.

Ramsay, who is due to open a restaurant in Melbourne at the end of the year, has already declared that he is scaling back his use of swearing in the kitchen and encouraging his staff to do so too. He also has his supporters in Australia. The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties said any attempts to interfere with the programmes would be a restriction of free speech. "Not everyone is offended by coarse language," the council said in its submission to the inquiry.

A working life of pain

What does it take to forge a career leaping off tall buildings? Just a healthy fear and a childlike sense of fun, Dean Forster tells Leo Benedictus...

Dean Forster gets asked about his job so often that he has learned a routine. "It's usually five questions," he says, casually self-assured in wraparound shades as we sip coffee together in Henley-on-Thames. "Have you met anybody famous? Have you been hurt? Is the money good? How did you get into it? And ..." He falters for a moment as a cold wind whips around our faces. "... something else."

So how does he deal with it? "For years I used to shrug quite a lot and say, 'Oh, I'm embarrassed.' Then I realised that's what the job entails, and now I love it. Absolutely love it." He does not have to convince me. His pleasure at the prospect of talking about his job is unmistakable - even if some of that early bashfulness still lingers at the edges of his schoolboy smile.

The answers to the five - sorry, four - routine questions are quick to arrive. Yes, he has worked with several famous people (including Gary Oldman and Tom Cruise). His injuries, though minor, have been numerous too. "Just as a chef's going to burn himself," he shrugs, "we get battered and bruised." And at anything up to several thousand pounds a day, the money is indeed good. But if injuries or anything else prevent him from working, he is keen to point out, his income falls to zero. As for how he got into doing stunts for a living, well, he was never really into anything else.

"My family used to own a motorcycle display team called the Mohicans," he explains. "In the 60s, my uncles used to dress up as Red Indians on BSA Gold Star motorbikes and do jumps at fetes and carnivals. As soon as I could walk, they put me on a bike to do little jumps. And it progressed into other areas." From judo and gymnastics to bicycles and trampolines, if it was fast, physical or involved generally throwing yourself about, then the teenage Forster was obsessed with it.

How to make a living from his passions, however, was the thing that gave him more trouble. At first, the closest he could get was working as a lifeguard in his local sports centre, and yet he knew that this was not enough. "I sat down one day and thought, what do I really, really want to do?" he remembers. "And that was it: I really, really wanted to be a stunt performer. And from that day, that's it, that's been my whole adult life - all I wanted to do."

Which is a good thing. Without such single-minded dedication to his work, Forster probably would not have made it. There are no training courses available in the UK for aspiring stunt performers, so in order to build up his skills he had to find work. And yet he would not be able to work without joining the register of the Joint Industry Stunt Committee, which meant producing six separate sporting qualifications at national or county level and finding at least 60 days' employment as an extra in order to gain experience in front of a camera. Even then, once he was registered as a probationary stunt performer, for three years he could only work under the supervision of a coordinator.

"And having those qualifications allows you to go on the stunt register," he cautions. "But it doesn't make you a good stunt performer." For this he had to practise individual skills, on his own or with colleagues, on the job or in his spare time, while trying to impress enough people to build up contacts in the film industry. Even now he is a fully qualified stunt coordinator, the learning continues. "I can call [a rental company] and ask them for an airbag, build a tower, and then spend a day practising high falls," he suggests, by way of example. It sounds expensive. "Yes," he agrees. "But doing the high falls is good money." This is the usual equation for stunt performers, of course: the more dangerous the stunt, the more they get paid. And they get the same again each time they do it.

So how much, I wonder tentatively as we move inside to a more sheltered table, does one actually have to learn about jumping off a building on to a giant airbag? "The higher you go, the smaller that thing gets," says Forster. "You're standing there on the edge ready to jump, and your whole body and mind are going, 'Don't do this. You do this and you're going to die.' When you're looking down like that, then it does become really, really difficult. And it's never as simple as you think. [In my last high fall] there was computer animation above me, and it was going to hit me so I fly backwards. And they wanted me twisting through the air."

What stunt is he best at then? "Fire. Absolutely 100%." He picks up his phone, taps a few buttons, and holds up a picture of a man with a large gun who is wearing a bomber jacket that is engulfed in flames - a lot of flames. "That's me," he announces, bringing the image further forward for me to see. "That's my favourite." It is hard to imagine that his wife likes it much.

In fact, this immolation masterpiece was not even part of a film, he explains, but was taken by a stunt coordinator friend of his for publicity purposes. "It was the first time I'd done it," he says. "There's a lot of science involved. And you do get burned. I know a few people who've got some really bad burns. Touch wood, I haven't." He reaches out for the table top. "When I hit the deck, they said the flames were 15 feet above my head." He is wriggling in his seat with excitement. "We're still kids," he admits. "I think 90% of stuntmen are still children at heart."

But fun aside, surely he is just a little afraid when somebody is about to set him on fire? "There has to be fear, otherwise you become complacent," he says, "and if you become complacent you'll get hurt... You're not nervous the first time, because it's something different. The second time you do it, that's when you're scared, because you really know what to expect... It's not everybody's cup of tea, but it's what we do."

That glint is back in his eye. Clearly he does enjoy a bit of danger - or is proud of himself for braving it, at least. Yet everything he does, he insists, is as safe as it can be. "We're not daredevils," he says. "We take calculated risks... If somebody said to me now, 'Jump through that window.' I'd say, 'No. Do I look stupid?' With a stunt it's different, because they'll put little dents in the window, so the second I go through it it's going to explode. And I'm going to wear knee pads and arm pads to protect myself. And there aren't going to be people walking past the window - or if there are they're going to be stunt performers who know I'm coming through." I glance outside. None of the well-dressed ladies of Henley look like stunt performers.

Forster's first paid stunt was in fact very similar to the scene he has just described. It was for a "water explosion" in the film Mission: Impossible. "Tom Cruise is in a restaurant in Prague," he recalls. "He throws his chewing gum at the [aquarium], and the restaurant caves in with water, and then he runs out of the restaurant. I was sitting opposite Tom Cruise when that happened, doubling the actor he was talking to. That was my first job."

Since then, he has worked on The Fifth Element, Tomorrow Never Dies, Lost in Space, Layer Cake, Dr Who, Life on Mars and many other projects. And yet still he is waiting to try the one stunt he has always dreamed of, the one that entices him even more than fire. "My absolute ultimate," he says, getting restless in his seat again, "and I was booked to do this a few years ago - although truthfully I would have done it free of charge - would be the classic jumping off a bridge on to a steam train, and running from carriage to carriage to carriage. Actually I would probably pay to do that. But they found somebody else."

Forster's chance to run along a train may yet come, although his time is running out. At the age of 40, as is normal in his profession, he now takes more work as a coordinator and less as a performer. "I feel like I've got another 10 years of performing in me," says Forster, who keeps fit practising karate. "and then we'll see what happens then. When I'm 50 I don't really want to be knocked down by a car or fall down stairs. Not because I don't want to," he adds hastily, as if anyone might doubt his enthusiasm, "just because of all the aches and pains."

CSI co-star Gary Dourdan arrested for drugs

CSI co-star Gary Dourdan was arrested Monday for possession of narcotics and dangerous drugs, police said. The 41-year-old actor was found asleep in his car by the Palm Springs Police Department, authorities revealed.

An officer saw Dourdan's car parked on the wrong side of the street with the interior light on and someone sleeping in the driver's seat at approximately 5:12 a.m. Monday, according to Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

The officer described Dourdan as disoriented and possibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The officer arrested Dourdan after locating suspected cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia. Dourdan was released on $5,000 bail at 10:30 a.m. Monday. A court date was not immediately scheduled.

Dourdan has played crime scene investigator Warrick Brown on CBS' "CSI" since 2000. Several celebrities were in town for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in nearby Indio, Calif. It was not immediately clear whether Dourdan attended the event. Representatives for Dourdan did not immediately return phone calls Tuesday.

Actor Marshall hit by car

Television star Kris Marshall is recovering from head injuries in hospital after being hit by a car, police said today. Marshall, 34, who shot to fame on My Family and is well known for his adverts for BT, was on a night out in Bristol when the accident happened.

He was taken to Bristol Royal infirmary where a scan revealed his head injuries were not life-threatening. A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: "There was a collision between a car and pedestrian shortly before 1am on Sunday.

"It happened in St Augustine's Parade in Bristol city centre. A man in his 30s was taken to hospital with head injuries not considered to be life-threatening. Police spoke to the driver of the car involved, which was a VW Polo. He stopped immediately after the collision and we are looking into how it happened. He was not a drink driver."

A spokeswoman for Mr Marshall said he was in a stable condition. "I can confirm that Kris Marshall was involved in an accident in Bristol on Saturday night and sustained a head injury," she said. "He is currently in a stable condition in hospital and is expected to be discharged within the next couple of days."

Marshall also starred in the hit British film Love, Actually, while other TV roles include Murder City and Sold. His new film Hotel Caledonia, is a British horror comedy, in which he plays a seasonal worker in a remote Scottish hotel.

He was named best comedy newcomer at the British Comedy Awards six years ago.

Is drama safe at the BBC?

A run of award-winning shows and high ratings have trumped rival broadcasters - but writers are increasingly concerned about the performance of the BBC's top executives, reports Gareth McLean...

At last Sunday's Baftas, after the ceremony ended but before the dancing began, there was an aroma in the air. It was the smell of disappointment emanating from BBC executives that Cranford had been pipped to the best serial Bafta by Channel 4's Britz. Now as anyone who has ever served on one will know, Bafta juries are riven with politicking and the eventual winner only really tells you who awarded the prize. After all, BBC drama is blossoming, isn't it?

From Cranford to Lark Rise to Candle-ford, Five Days to The Street, the corporation's drama department has been bathed in critical acclaim at the same time as attracting respectable ratings. There is a new vigour at EastEnders, returning series such as Waking the Dead still do well and BBC3's recent foray into broadcasting pilots can be judged a success too.

Yet several award-winning writers and accomplished producers, both inside and outside the Corporation, have spoken to the Guardian about BBC drama and a disturbing picture has emerged. It is a picture of a regime in which only one person's opinion matters, a system in which the micro-management of projects by inexperienced executives and producers is, according to one writer, leading to "an anti-creative, stifling atmosphere that's killing new ideas".

"There are so many cooks involved in any new project now that any distinctiveness is being throttled," says another, Bafta-winning writer. "Such is the lack of courage of commissioners and the climate of fear in which they operate, the commissioning process is ossifying." The only opinion that these writers and producers say matters is that of Jane Tranter, the BBC's head of Fiction. One writer, who like the rest asked to remain anonymous, claims that trust between the BBC and writers and producers who deliver the goods has evaporated.

"They commission an episode, you write seven drafts, probably with input from four different BBC producers - all of whom contradict one another - and then, instead of making a decision, they commission a second episode and then often a third, even for a second series. They're so scared of getting it wrong, they'd rather play it safe. There is only one question in everyone's head, whether it be writer, independent producer or BBC exec - what would Jane think?"

Tranter certainly presides over an impressive empire with an annual budget of £440m. In 2006, she was appointed controller, BBC Fiction, making her responsible for drama, comedy, film and acquisitions. "No matter how good they are - and Jane Tranter is talented - that amount of power can't be a good idea," says one producer. If BBC drama is akin to a Tudor court, with Queen Jane at its heart, then the chief courtier - perhaps her Cardinal Wolsey - is Ben Stephenson. Head of drama commissioning for some three years, 31-year-old Stephenson is described as Tranter's gate-keeper or her "fig-leaf to delegation". His appointment caused resentment, largely because of his age and inexperience.

Critics are keen on two stories about him. The first is that the only thing he has ever produced - Bombshell, a show for ITV about life in the army made when he worked for independent producer Shed - has never been shown in the UK. The other is a note that he allegedly gave writer Frank Deasy on the script of The Passion. How does he respond to accusations that he is unqualified to judge the work of producers and writers with decades more experience than him?

"It's fair enough to make that comment but commissioning is totally different from producing and producing is totally different from commissioning - although at the end of the day, it's all about scripts and the judgement of scripts ... It's for other people to judge if I have the experience or not. I loved making Bombshell. It's not for me to talk about why it didn't air." When put to him the testimonies of the writers and producers, he says he doesn't recognise the picture painted and rejects the idea that BBC drama (budget: £288m) is run along autocratic lines. If anything, he says, there's a plurality of opinion.

"Ultimately the decision on what is made is made between me, Jane and the channel controller, but in terms of what's developed, there's a genuine diversity of voices which there wouldn't be if Jane and me developed things ourselves ...[Jane] isn't the taste-maker, she really isn't. My feeling is 'thank God we have a lot of commissioning editors' because that genuinely means that one person doesn't rule."

So the 'What would Jane think?' thing isn't true? "Everyone's always concerned with what the next person up the ladder will think. When a writer sends in a script they wonder what the script editor will think, and when the script editors work on it, they'll wonder what the producer will think and so on. Inevitably, you want the person who reads it next to love it, so someone will think 'what will Jane think?' or 'what will Ben think?' But that's just the way it goes."

Moreover, he says, micro-management is a myth. "The way I look at it is that we're in a creative partnership with writers, producers, directors. We've got different roles but we're in it together. That's a much better state than us being disinterested. As for their being 'too many cooks', I feel television is collaborative. We work with most of the best writers in the country and I think we've got good relationships with them. If we didn't, the work wouldn't be any good."

In many ways, BBC drama is in rude health. Whereas Channel 4 may shout about its triumphs in both the single drama and drama serial categories at the Baftas, it conspicuously lacks returning series beyond Skins and Shameless. The woes of ITV Drama are well-documented. Under Tranter, who was unavailable last week, BBC drama has blossomed and bloomed. She is credited with an eye and an instinct for what an audience - a BBC1 audience especially - appreciates and enjoys. Her considerable talent is only underlined by failed attempts at ITV1 to replicate what Tranter has done at BBC1. But could the travails of Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes at ITV be obscuring simmering problems at the BBC?

Stephenson is adamant that the concentration of power in one post is a good thing. "At the end of the day, we're all working with the same quite small pool of talent - be it actors, writers, producers - so it really makes sense for us to talk to each other. It's about someone having a strategic overview and bringing people together." All of which sounds terribly benign. So why does he think so many writers and producers have voiced such concerns? "People worry, but they don't speak to us. I always encourage agents to speak to me if there's a problem," he says.

Isn't that because they're frightened? "How can they be frightened of us?" he says incredulously, possibly disingenuously. So there's no truth in the rumour that there's a list of talent banned from working on BBC dramas? "Tell me who's on the black list and we'll look at what we're making and compare it. I know that there's one person supposedly on the black list who's making something for us right now. There isn't a list written down on a bit of paper and there isn't a list in anyone's head. What we always do is talk about who is the best person for a job. It's about putting the right team together."

Stephenson is a fulcrum around which rumour revolves. To his credit, he deals with it all rather cheerfully, even when confronted with the infamous story about The Passion. Apparently, he gave a note on the scene featuring Jesus's crucifixion which read "Is there enough at stake?"

"No. That is made-up. Frank Deasy did the most sensational job on The Passion but when you're writing a script with characters called Jesus and Judas, it's hard to give notes because you have to say 'Would Jesus do this?' so you're inevitably sending yourself up. I knew that when I was writing those notes but does that mean I can't ask the question? No." So what was the note? "We didn't want people to have to know the story of Jesus before, and therefore I asked a question about the beginning of the narrative along the lines of 'If you didn't know the story, would you understand what was going on?'"

Stephenson says he should be judged on his last set of notes and those were on Gwyneth Hughes' follow-up to her commendable thriller, Five Days. He points to Hughes' new series along with a new adaptation of Little Dorrit, Adrian Hodges' reimagining of Survivors, David Nicholls' take on Tess of the D'Ubervilles and a slew of one-off dramas including Fiona's Story, written by newcomer Kate Gabriel, about a woman whose husband is investigated for downloading child porn, as testament to the vitality and diversity of BBC drama. Other launches include this week's The Invisibles, with Warren Clarke and Jenny Agutter.

Yet the writers and producers tell a different tale. One of freshness and originality being squeezed out in favour of established brands and dramas that are easy to market internationally. "In the history of TV, the stuff that makes an impact is the stuff that has its own voice - something like Doctor Who, say," says one of the writers we spoke to. "And some of the best shows have come out of a tussle between creative people - writers and producers and executives," says another of the writers we spoke to. "But to me, the future of BBC drama looks bleak."

Like all the best stories, this one is to be continued.

Money madman who declares capitalism is crazy

To celebrate international Earth Week, the television empire NBC has asked America's favourite share tipster to infuse his daily Mad Money broadcast with a green theme. As the minutes tick down to showtime in his chaotic New Jersey studio, Jim Cramer is anxious for props. "Do we have jungle music?" he demands. "How about a pith helmet? Can you find me a pith helmet? It's like an upside down round thing - and it's hard!" As the cameras flicker into life, Cramer begins his prime-time hour by crouching, crab-like, in an indoor tree and gesticulating vigorously with the branches as he urges viewers to invest in natural gas. Every so often a snippet of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" blares out.

His shambolically cluttered set includes a Wall Street sign, an oil painting of himself, a picture of Che Guevara, a packet of Uncle Ben's rice bearing a photo of the Federal Reserve's Ben Bernanke and a large collection of squeezy plastic pigs. "The notion of teaching through entertaining is something that you don't find a lot of," says Cramer after the show. "There's a very big entertainment component - and I don't mean that to say it's not rigorous."

Cramer, 53, has a vast following among America's millions of armchair investors. His act, in which he hurtles dementedly around his studio on the business channel CNBC yelling stock tips, moves share prices daily, and his angry rants routinely become viral videos on the internet. During a phone-in segment, Cramer delivers on-the-fly advice to William from Oklahoma, who holds shares in Chesapeake Energy, and to Steve in Florida who gets tips on hydrocarbons. Each caller greets Cramer with his catchphrase - "boo-yah!"

It is brash, tacky, greedy and flashy. Yet after the cameras shut down, Cramer is unapologetic. "I call myself the most sincerely insincere man in North America," he says. "But I've been given a great thing which is an hour of national TV that I can use to affect people and make them interested in the market. I'm a kind of a televangelist for money."

A Harvard law school graduate who made a fortune as a trader, Cramer is more than just a clown. He co-founded the news website TheStreet.com, where he is paid a salary of $1.3m (£650,000), and he is arguably America's best known financial commentator. Off-camera, an encyclopaedic mind is evident as he sprinkles esoteric historical references into his rapid-fire analysis of America's economic crisis - for which he holds laissez-faire policies in Washington partly responsible.

Cramer says that under Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, there was a proud tradition in the US of regulating capitalism to ensure it was fair - until the neo-conservative era dawned. "Capitalism is supposed to be regulated," he says, citing the need to protect the public against dodgier hedge funds and sub-prime mortgage brokers. "The marketplace is really stupid, rapacious at the margins. It's a remarkably inefficient and brutal world."

Citing rocketing food prices while crops are diverted to ethanol production, he compares the US Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, to the 19th century British prime minister Lord John Russell, whose free market policies were blamed for exacerbating the Irish potato famine in the 1840s.

Cramer reserves his greatest ire for the Fed's Ben Bernanke, who, he maintains, was complicit in fuelling the housing boom. "Anybody who looks at his legacy will see he's laissez-faire, laissez-faire, laissez-faire," says Cramer. "If you go back and look at his speeches in 2004, 2006, he was very much in favour of the kind of exotic home equity mortgages which are now part of a $400bn morass."

There were 14m homes sold in the US between 2005 and 2007, Cramer points out, of which a large chunk were on sub-prime mortgages. In the meantime, the Fed kept raising interest rates.

"Where was Bernanke? Did anyone sound the alarm on the rapacious strategies of the mortgage brokers? No - because they thought the market was terrific and the market could handle it," says Cramer, gathering a head of steam. "The market was so out of control that it almost destroyed capitalism as we know it but these guys thought it was just fine because the market's never wrong.

"It's that hubris - that belief in the market, that Ayn Rand 'Fountainhead' nonsense that became our mantra in our country. It's embarrassing!"

His disdain for Bernanke has become a long-running campaign. One of Cramer's top ten predictions of the year is that Bernanke will lose his job. In a red-faced on-air tirade last August which became required viewing on Wall Street and beyond, Cramer let rip about the mild-mannered Fed chief, yelling: "Bernanke is being an academic! It is no time to be an academic ... he has no idea how bad it is out there! He has no idea! He has no idea!"

With hindsight, Cramer admits that his agitation can occasionally become "cartoonish", adding that he briefly feared that he had suffered some kind of aneurysm with the aggression of his outburst which has been viewed more than 2m times on YouTube.

Back in his days running a hedge fund, Cramer's temper was legendary. A former employee, Nicholas Maier, wrote a book recounting how a difficult trading session once prompted his boss to smash a phone on his desk and heave a computer monitor across the room.

Fiercely competitive, Cramer has since run into trouble by acknowledging his familiarity with some of the more dubious methods of hedge funds - such as shorting stocks and then spreading rumours to push down the price. This practice, known as "fomenting", is illegal - but "you do it anyway, because the securities and exchange commission doesn't understand it" he told one interviewer. He later insisted that he was not talking from personal experience.

Cramer acknowledges that he behaved like "Stalin" when he was running a fund: "I had a huge chip on my shoulder, I didn't have a lot of money. I felt that in order to get it right, we had to work 18 hours a day. I couldn't tolerate yawning, I couldn't tolerate sneezing because that meant somebody was going to be ill and off work."

That chip on his shoulder may have been to do with a turbulent early career. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Florida and California before suffering a series of catastrophic mishaps in which his home was burgled and his bank account was emptied. In his autobiography, Cramer recounts being homeless for nine months and sleeping in a car in California with a gun for protection.

A father of two young daughters, he rises at 4.15am every day to stay on top of the stockmarket. But critics have questioned whether his track record is actually any good. Cramer's website, TheStreet.com, has a bewildering database of thousands of his stock tips but doesn't keep a running total. Barron's magazine worked out last year that he was broadly in line with the market, but concluded it was almost impossible to judge because of the variety of his on-air exclamations. Does pressing a button which emits a bull-like sound effect count as advising viewers to buy?

Cramer reacts to scepticism by pointing out that as a hedge fund manager, he returned 24% annually after all fees over a 14-year period: "Over a very long period of time, I made a lot of people a lot of money."

Recently, Cramer faced catcalls over remarks about Bear Stearns in response to a viewer's email just days before the bank went bust. "No, no, no. Bear Stearns is fine - do not take your money out!" Cramer thundered on his show.

Defending himself, Cramer points out that the viewer was asking about Bear's liquidity, rather than its shares - and that he was advising those with deposits at the bank not to withdraw their funds, rather than to hang on to the stock.

"It would have been better if I'd said 'sell, sell, sell' - that would have been a home run call," he admits. "But it could have maybe wiped [the bank] out because some people say the show's that powerful."

Just how responsible is it for an avowed Democrat to be urging the public to put money in stocks?

"They're watching this network because they want to do it," he says. "Man, if you don't like me, it's a gosh-darned TV show, turn it off for heaven's sake."

CNN presenter Quest goes into rehab

CNN's UK-born presenter Richard Quest has embarked on a course of drug rehabilitation following his arrest last Friday in New York.

The US news broadcaster today issued a statement confirming that Quest, a familiar face on the network, had entered a "drug rehabilitation facility" on the orders of a judge following his arrest. "At this time, CNN's primary concern is for his health and wellbeing. We look forward to Richard returning to CNN International," the broadcaster said in a statement.

A CNN spokesman declined to "speculate" on when Quest would return to the network he joined in 2001. He began his career as a BBC news trainee in 1985 and spent 16 years at the corporation.

Quest was arrested in Central Park last Friday, April 18, at 3.42am local time for what a New York Police Department spokesman described as "criminal possession of a controlled substance, believed to be methamphetamine and for being in Central Park after closing time". During a court arraignment early on Saturday, he agreed to undergo drug counselling and therapy for the next six months in order to avoid a prison sentence.

At CNN Quest has made his name as a business reporter and presenter. He also hosts the monthly specials CNN World Business Traveller and fronted the Quest series of shows on diverse subjects. Past programmes have included Quest For Spirituality, Quest For Culinary Success and Quest For Rock 'N' Roll, in which rock star Alice Cooper put the reporter in a headlock.

Quest is regarded as a popular figure at CNN where he reports with a distinctively enthusiastic style and gruff voice. Writing in the Mail on Sunday last year Michael Holden described Quest as "a kind of manic nerd with a head for figures and a voice like Yoda struggling to impersonate Barry White".

As a business travel specialist, Quest has become a voice of authority on subjects such as the launch of the Airbus A380. He also travelled across the US to gauge public feeling in the build-up to the 2004 presidential election and anchored CNN's coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II, live from Rome.

BBC3 picks up Being Human and Phoo Action

BBC3 controller Danny Cohen has ordered six more episodes of Being Human, the one-off drama pilot about a flatshare between a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire broadcast earlier this year.

Cohen has commissioned the full series of Being Human from independent producer Touchpaper Television, part of the RDF Media group, after the one-off episode was shown in February as part of the channel's drama pilot season and peaked at nearly 450,000 viewers. Filming on the series, which will once again be written by Toby Whithouse, will start later this year for transmission in 2009.

The BBC said it would confirm casting at a later date. Russell Tovey, Andrea Riseborough and Guy Flanaghan starred in the pilot. BBC Wales head of drama Julie Gardner, who was one of the show's executive producers, said: "BBC drama is always looking for diverse and surprising pieces, and Being Human hit the spot with its irreverence and wit."

Cohen added: "Of all our recent drama experiments on BBC3, Being Human struck the most powerful chord with the audience. At its heart is a bold and adventurous concept and I'm looking forward to seeing how this is realised across a series."

Another of the series of pilots to win a full series commission on BBC3 is the kitsch kung-fu drama pilot Phoo Action. The drama, which starred actor Ray Winstone's daughter, Jaime, as a high-kicking futuristic crime fighter, will return for a full six-part series next year. Phoo Action pulled in 232,000 viewers and a multichannel share of 1.1% between 9pm and 10pm in February and was recommissioned before it was broadcast.

Bollywood versus the Taleban

Kabul’s biggest private television station has defied a government order to take Indian soap operas off the air, insisting that it was issued at the behest of religious conservatives trying to “re-Talebanise” Afghanistan. More and more viewers are addicted to the Bombay-made dramas – tales of family life with thin storylines, wooden acting and poor production values, but which have captured the Afghan imagination.

The soaps have caused a huge debate. Prime-time viewing is a battleground between liberals and conservatives, with President Hamid Karzai backing the order to take the dramas off the air by yesterday’s deadline after months of dispute. At least one station complied, but last night viewers were able to watch Tulsi – its full title is “Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law too” – which is said to be the most popular programme in Afghanistan, and Kasauti Zindagi Kay (Trials of Life).

Tolo TV decided to go ahead with the broadcasts after winning the support of the journalists’ union. Javid Mohseni, one of the Afghan-Australian brothers behind Tolo TV, said: “They may be just soap operas, but if we accept a ban in the run-up to the elections it will then be possible for the Government to ban anything – including, perhaps, political programmes.”

Conservatives have long argued that the soap operas promote alien values. At one point they condemned them for encouraging “stone-worship” because characters are sometimes shown praying before shrines of Shiva and Ganesh. Tolo TV believes that the Government is keen to muzzle Afghanistan’s media, one of the nation’s post-2001 success stories. Afghan journalists, who have felt under increasing official pressure recently, rallied to support Tolo TV’s stand.

Abdul Hamid Mobarez, the head of the Afghan National Journalists’ Union, said: “The mass media is in danger. The Minister of Information and Culture does not like TV which is too liberal.” An ugly atmosphere was brewing yesterday as fundamentalists called for demonstrations. Claims were made that clerics were being asked to tell their congregations to protest.

Tolo, which operates from a building ringed with razor wire and guarded by men with AK47s, was forced to step up security after threats were made against the company. Saad Mohseni, director of Tolo TV, said: “There is a political agenda here but it is also an attempt to end the free media and re-Talebanise Afghanistan.”

Dell Jan is an Afghan widow and a mother of six who relies on a car battery to watch Indian soaps that offer her a peek into a different way of life. "I like Tulsi a lot and my also children like her a lot," she said. "When the series started on television, we stopped all of our work, even eating, and kept watching the series. We love it, it’s entertainment for children."

Latest movers and shakers

Alicia Silverstone has signed up to star in US comedy pilot Bad Mother's Handbook. The actress will play 32-year-old mother Karen, who struggles to fit her life around a 16-year-old daughter and 48-year-old mother. Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) has been cast as the daughter. A pilot of the series is in production for ABC.

Meanwhile, Philip Winchester (Thunderbirds) has agreed to play the title character in drama series Crusoe, based on the Daniel Defoe novel. The series is due to air on NBC in the autumn. Anna Walton (Hell Boy II) has also been cast in the series. Justin Bodle, executive producer and founder of UK producer Power, which is making the show, said: "With such a stellar cast and director now on board, we are well on course to delivering a landmark piece of event television."

Former Angel actress Amy Acker will reunite with Joss Whedon on his upcoming project Dollhouse. Whedon announced Acker's involvement on his website Whedonesque: "I'm shocked that any part of our casting process hasn't been leaked somehow. And though I'm a fan of secrets... Dr. Claire Saunders will be played by... Amy Acker." The drama is about a group of men and women, known as dolls, who are charged with carrying out a series of "assignments". They can be imprinted with different memories, skills, languages and abilities appropriate to each task.

Acker joins fellow Angel luminary Eliza Dushku in the cast, in addition to Olivia Williams, Harry Lennix, Miracle Laurie and Tahmoh Penikett. Buffy creator Whedon also hailed the calibre of the show's cast: "All in all, pound for pound, soup to nuts, man vs beast, it's a pretty amazing ensemble. I'm not sure how I landed this troupe, but rest assured I'm gonna write bestest good word for talkacting to them yes! They're in good hands." Fox is planning a seven-episode season of the show for September.

Britney Spears is to return to US sitcom How I Met Your Mother following the success of her cameo last month, reports claim. According to People, the singer has signed a one-episode deal to make a second appearance on the CBS series. A source said: "The show is ecstatic and so is Britney. She had so much fun the first time around she really wanted to come back. It was a mutual decision to work together more.''

Spears's guest spot as a doctor's receptionist was praised by critics and earned ratings of 10.6 million, an increase of almost 2 million on the show's season average. Executive producer Carter Bays previously said she was welcome to return, although star Neil Patrick Harris denied rumours that she would become a regular castmate.

WGA names and shames strike breakers

The Writers Guild of America has named and shamed 28 members who effectively resigned from the union in order to work during the strike.

The individuals applied to downgrade their membership to "financial core" status, meaning they could still work under WGA conditions, but paid slightly less fees and were no longer active members. In a letter to members, Patric Verrone and Michael Winship, presidents of WGA West and East respectively, said many of those named worked and were paid.

Most were writers for soaps. They included Paula Cwikly (As the World Turns), Hogan Sheffer (Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns), Barbara J Esensten (The Guiding Light), Dena Higley (One Life to Live) and John F Smith (The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful).

A notable high-profile name was John Ridley (Three Kings).

"...among the many there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good," the pair wrote.

"This handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are - strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk...

“Without concern for their colleagues, they turned their backs and tossed the burden of collective action onto the rest of us, taking jobs, reducing our leverage and damaging the guilds for their own advantage."