There seems to be a window of opportunity emerging to inject a bit of life into the country’s playgrounds, judging by a new government consultation on the quality and content of children’s play areas. A national play strategy will see kids’ playgrounds being put under the microscope, aiming to get beyond swings and roundabouts to “something more creative that inspires play across a wider age range”.

The consultation comes from DCSF and DCMS, and it does rather suggest an opportunity for colleagues from the arts to bring their considerable experience in this area to the table? There is

I’ve seen two great films in the last fortnight, but where are the audiences? The first, Vantage Point, was in a little out of the way place on a rainy Tuesday, but Son of Rambow was at the biggest city centre screen, on Friday night. Is DVD by mail hurting cinema? (I hear Love Film is buying Amazon’s UK DVD hire list). Or was it Son of Rambow’s poor reviews, which criticised the film’s 1980’s setting for its artificiality: sorry, were they there in the ‘eighties?