Jem has been raving - I am now loving this. Have at last got round to watching. Pure unadulterated class.

So camp. *sigh* I love everything. The theme music, the graphics, the bras, the smoking, the booze, the women, and Don Draper of course. And those lovely ironic references to the negligent approach to childcare and looking after the planet (remember the picnic?) back at the beginning of the sixties when everything was throwaway.

I can't wait for Tuesday nights. Have you bought series one on DVD, SB?

Jem - I am off to Amazon right now to get it... I am obsessed with this programme. Luckily so is my husband - another interest beyond Arsenal football club! BUT our sky digi box has just imploded and stopped taping so I don't know where I'm up to as I started watching only recently and only had 4 episodes - Can you help Jem... the last one I saw was Peggy meets the new priest and he gives her the easter egg for her child. Am I anywhere up to date with this series? I think I can watch the latest on iplayer but have I missed many?????

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Can you sense my panic and desperation - I so rarely watch tv and when I like something I REALLY LIKE IT!

I LOVE Mad Men. Like Jem, I also adore every moment of the titles, especially the impossibly shapely leg in the stocking. You're right, Sarah, it is pure class.

I can't understand why everyone doesn;t love it. I think you might be two behind though, Sarah...Damn, if I hadn;t deleted from our Virgin thingie, I could have stuck them on a video for you!



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The picnic!!! I think I actually gasped at that horrendous littering!
I think Sarah will have missed that one.

Thing is, Sarah, nothing really ever happens so you wouldn't have missed much. It's the just sitting there letting it all wash magically over you that you'll have missed.

Did you see the bra episode?

And did you know that Don knew about Peggy's baby,went to visit her after the breakdown she suffered (in the break between series 1 and 2) and so is always able to call up a favour? So Peggy went to pick Don and his mistress (the wife of the comic) up after Don crashed his car when he was with her?

Ahh - thanks Jem - Jimmy and Bobbie isn't it. I watched the last episode on iplayer last night. I seem to have been totally sucked in and seduced by this. I'm buying the first series and will probably watch in one go!

Who is the father of Peggy's baby? Is it the guy whose father got killed in the plane crash - the one who was recently married?

And isn't the gay art guy with the dyed black quiff just wonderful - and his poor wife.

And isn't Don's wife just too sweet to be true - though she die throw up in Don's precious new car at the end of the last episode which was so funny when he'd had them all checking to make sure their hands were clean before getting in after the picnic. Wonderful touches throughout.

The American do drama so much better than us - so beautifully paced and poignant and witty and subtle and, and ...

Urg, don;t agree that Betty is lovely! I think she is pretty awful, although do feel sorry for her. What I love about her is that she has an ever so slightly unhinged look in her eye. You feel she could so something wildly unpredictable at any moment.

I was hoping that Betty would jump into bed with Jimmy - I'm really looking forward to see how that all develops!

Betty has definitely shown the unhinged quality - remember when she aimed the gun at the neighbour's pigeons and shot one? I like her. I see her as a symbol of dissatisfied pre-feminist woman She's boughtinto the American dream, but she's bored, bored, bored. The lid will come off.


The father of Peggy's baby is Pete Campbell, btw. which is ironic because he can't have children with his wife.

Pete is oddly repellant, I find. Saw him in an interview and he was quite a nice looking man, but definitely suits this era better!

When that geek at the tables told Betty she was profoundly unhappy, it was brilliant how her hands were shaking when she lit her cigarette - I love the way the truth of her hollow life is slowly dawning on her.

Yes, Pete's a creep. Don is creepy too - but in a sexier and infinitely more dangerous way. Pete tries too hard.

It's all unravelling for Betsy now, Caroline.

Ooh, can't wait to watch it. I'm rather tragically excited about having both this AND The Apprentice AND Damages to catch up with!

I'm having to put a hold on Damages. Got the DVD of series one but couldn't agree which episode to start at as I'd seen about the first four. (I missed one or two because of the stupid time it was on - didn't they keep moving it?) and then didn't feel I could get back into it. My son remembered what had happened so wanted to move it on but me, being a hundred, didn't. Will have to buy series 2 when it comes out and have a Damages Fest next winter.

Do you still dislike Betsy, Caroline? I feel very sorry for her. What I like about the portrayal of the three women on the show is that they have problems so much more complexly (?) portrayed than what you usually see these days. Find out husband has had an affair - buy shoes; have had nose pushed out of job by lesser able male being - buy shoes; am being forced to look inside myself - buy shoes.