He is desperate for a co-prinicipal to ease the punishing workload that is making him a nervous wreck

He is desperate for a co-prinicipal to ease the punishing workload that is making him a nervous wreck. In addition, we meet violist Carol Hultmark, who thinks nothing of driving home hundreds of miles after a late-night performance for the privilege of making her children their breakfast porridge the following morning. The pressures of trying to see enough of a young family are also getting to Mike Whight, principal clarinet. Over the three hours, we are introduced to Mike Lloyd, a violist and an alcoholic in recovery after 18 years of abuse. He discovers that a combination of his addiction and the awkward resting-place of his instrument have caused a potentially life-threatening thrombosis in his left shoulder.

To be broadcast on C4 later this month, Lol Lovett’s series offers a fly-on-the-baton view of how tough life can be as a jobbing musician in an orchestra that takes on an unparalleled 600 sessions a year just to keep the books balanced. Documentaries these days are all about “casting”. Film-makers are all looking for their Jeremy Spakes (Airport), Maureen Rees (Driving School) or Jane McDonalds (The Cruise). The Phil (above), a new three-part documentary about the Philharmonia Orchestra, seems to be well cast. This could be the year when the medium finally breaks through. In the meantime I’d like to hear from anybody who doesn’t have a computer but has found a way to use the Internet for no, or virtually no, outlay.. The barriers have gradually broken down and Internet access in libraries and other public spaces such as cybercafes has become more commonplace.

When the Internet was first dreamed into existence, it was purely a medium for academics. Despite these occasional moments of madness, however, there has been a slow but inexorable movement towards the opening of the Internet to increasing numbers of people. The problem has never been one of generating interest amongst people; it has been more about giving access. For a few days after it went online Internet pundits were, for some unfathomable reason, falling over themselves to explain how this symbolised some kind of fundamental shift in power towards Internet users. Last year, for example, Altavista, the search engine company, launched Babelfish, a programme which translates web pages from half a dozen languages. Orange have long offered a very handy text communications system where you can send short messages to people with Orange phones.