Watching the IFTAs on television recently, I saw "Blood of the Irish" win in the television documentary series category. While having a lot to admire as a programme, I was saddened to see it considered the best of it's genre.

However, the programme suffered from an all-too-common ailment - dumbing down. It was an excellent hour of television stretched and tortured into two hours. As viewers, we were treated to uncompromising repetition. After each break, we were force-fed the same information over and over. This is an American style of presentation that infuriates me. It breaks my focus on the topic at hand and drives me away from a programme. "Blood of the Irish" is just one high profile case in point but we see it all over our TV screens these days.

Except on the BBC.

I had the pleasure of watching a Horizon documentary on cooking and how it has impacted on our evolution. Oh Joy. An intelligent, well structured, insightful documentary with a nice line in laconic humor. No mindless repetition to catch up the channel surfers. No unnecessary waffle that should have been left out in the edit. Pure, simple, polished programming.

I'm happy for the 90% drivel on TV to dumb down but please, leave documentary alone.