I'M not sure if you have noticed but something quite remarkable has been happening on BBC2 on Thursdays.

Within the space of an hour, we had a programme which looked at architecture, the work of the artist Caraveggio, Welsh rap music and the forthcoming Oscars and all this from a programme with a 7pm start time.

The Culture Show sits rather incongruously in that slot usually occupied by a variety of celebrity gardeners, Bill Oddie and numerous re-runs of The Good Life.

It's the kind of programme which normally gets relegated to the post-Newsnight position when, even if you might be interested in it, you can't really stay up that late to watch it.

So well done the Beeb for trying to bring a bit of quality and, dare one say, even highbrow programming to the early evenings.

Of course not everything on The Culture Show is going to be to your liking but at least there is something there to get your teeth into.

Most interesting has been the search to find the greatest design icon of the 20th century which has come down to the three finalists the London Underground map, the Spitfire and Concorde, with viewers voting for their favourite (is there no escape from those dreaded phone numbers?) And the best thing about having an arts programme on so early in the evening is, you can have your fill of culture and then turn over to watch Penny Smith move ever closer to the Two of Us title and then gaze in wonder as Amber searches for the gun that killed Conrad using a metal detector in Footballers' Wives. . . without feeling guilty!