24

I've never been greatly tempted to pay out for satelite telly (it's painfully obvious I can watch quite enough crap without that helping hand!), but the one thing that could get me to reconsider would be 24.

I treated myself recently to the box-set of the first three series and having been sort of housebound of late I finally managed to watch series three, which never made it to terrestrial telly. A total return to form in my opinion.

However, no sooner am I basking in the pleasure of having caught up, then adverts for series 4 on Sky One start appearing everywhere. Also not helping on the covetting front is a work colleague who has downloaded episodes as they come out in the US (he's up to episode 7 now I think - bastard!).

And tonight, presumably in an attempt to hook in new customers, Sky are showing the opening episodes on a Freeview channel as well as Sky One.

Oh the dilemma. Do I watch and then suffer the pain of waiting months for the DVD to come out, or do I refuse to let myself get sucked in by this marketing ploy in any way, shape or form (and I'm adamantly not about to sign up for Sky)?

Ali rings at just the right moment; I set the VCR to record; I'll decide another day.