Mad Men to return to the BBC

Good news for fans of quality TV drama: the second series of Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner, will be shown on the BBC next year.

Perhaps inspired by this news, in The Guardian, Mark Lawson sings the praises of Weiner, (as well as of David Renwick and Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong).

In a generally outstanding series, episode five of Mad Men (BBC4/BBC2) - written by the show's creator, Matthew Weiner - was a masterclass in drama scripting. Two lines - impressively given to a relatively minor character - are typical of Weiner's subtlety. When Trudy (Alison Brie) reads a short story by her husband, Pete, her comment "I just think it's odd that the bear is talking" skewers his pretentious style.

After Pete bullies Trudy into taking the manuscript to a former boyfriend who is now a publisher, he is disappointed with the low-grade magazine in which his work is placed. "I could have gotten you in the New Yorker," his wife replies, a simple line that strongly suggests that she submitted to a sex-act, but not sex, with the ex.