Sky News — Peter Firmin - the co-creator of classic children's TV programmes The Clangers, Bagpuss and Basil Brush - has died aged 89. more info

BBC News - UK — The veteran children's television character talks to Simon McCoy about the Royal family and the World Cup. more info

BBC News - UK — Thousands of British TV shows are to be digitised before they are lost forever, says the BFI. more info

Guardian Music — The final part of BBC2's compelling Saturday night series I'm A Pop Star! reveals some of the loneliness of the long-distance solo pop star"I thought there would at least be a meeting," reflects Rick Astley on BBC2's I'm A Pop Star! (Sat, 9pm, BBC2),... more info

Guardian Music — Producer of Top of the Pops during its 1970s heydayTop of the Pops was a "must-watch" television programme for Britain's youth at its height in the 1970s, when Robin Nash, who has died aged 84, was its producer. The Thursday-evening programme, a... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Albert Hall, LondonDo children have shorter attention spans than they did a generation ago? The gentleman sitting beside me and my eight-year-old son at the Children's Prom robustly asserted that they did; he had been forced as a nine-year-old ... more info