Jeff Banks: My week in media

Last week I watched...

Cranford, which I really enjoyed. I didn't expect I was going to, but Judi Dench is fantastic and I've seen all the episodes. When I used to do The Clothes Show it was based in Birmingham, which was the real centre of costume drama. I saw all the effort that went into getting the costume and the detail right, so it was that, as much as the story itself, that enthralled me. Panorama was about our troops in Iraq and the reality of what they're going through. More and more is coming out about how we've got sucked into the "Vietnam Syndrome". Nobody is really sure of the amount of commitment needed when you go into a war and how it can end up going on for years.

Last week I read...

The papers were crowded with stories about the canoeist but I did read a story in The Times about the EU-Africa conference. I wonder how the planet has allowed Robert Mugabe to get away with what he has got away with, and how the leaders of the African continent are still not making a move to oust him. It seems suicidal to me. I got buried in Cycling that's my staple weekly read and Cycle Sport magazines. I flick through all the fashion magazines which get dumped on my desk by the pile-load like homework. My favourite is Vanity Fair because the writing is really good. There was an article about the squabble that's going on in Hollywood between the DreamWorks team and Viacom. I find the background of that really interesting: these young pretenders have for a time usurped the Hollywood system, but finally the studios are winning.

Last week I listened to...

I listen to BBC Radio 2 or 4 in the car and heard that the Pope (pictured) had said he felt like there was a lot of scaremongering going on about climate change. He said it in couched Vatican terms, but it angered a lot of people in the scientific community. It followed a very good article in The Independent on Sunday about how a lot of people are dragging their heels on the issue even though there is so much scientific evidence.

Last week I surfed...

I'm a technical heathen. Everybody takes the mickey out of me at work, but they all got trained for 10 years and I never was. It's probably going to be my downfall later on...

Jeff Banks designs a clothing range for Debenhams and has just been awarded the Drapers Lifetime Achievement Award