Welcome once again to our walk down Memory Lane, which is actually done in cyberspace and thus is very safe. We do not need to knock elbows or walk at least a yard apart. Have you been stocking up on pasta and toilet rolls? I just carry on regardless but here is a non-medical tip: the virus hates vodka or other strong spirits. My advice is to gargle and swallow such alcohol. It may or may not help but will certainly make you less worried.

With all this concern I thought, what can I can write about this week to perk us all up? Well at last X Factor has been cancelled, at least for this year. No more violins playing over sob stories, no more clichéd comments from judges and the rest of the predictable stuff. I hosted a plaque unveiling for Simon Cowell at Elstree Studios 14 years ago when the show was at its peak but everything has a shelf life. I just think television executives have become lazy. Come up with new formats and new talent! They also overexpose existing people. Can any new programme exist without Bradley or Rylan, whom I have met at Elstree Studios and are great guys - but remember the old adage: less is more.

I still remember watching the first episode of Dr Who on our old black and white 20-inch television in I think 1963 with William Hartnell. He had been a star of low budget films made at what is now the BBC Elstree Centre in the 1940s. The ratings for the latest series have been dire and the BBC really needs to rethink. Forget about ticking boxes, I don't know whether my editor will allow me to say this in this politically correct era but I think Dr Who should be a man and only have one assistant.

To cheer us all up, let me turn to Jack the Ripper. In 1978 I walked around the sites of the murders; places like Mitre Square were still as they were. It was a private tour and one of my guests was employed by MI5 so he requested no photographs be taken. This is not a joke. I now regret inviting him as I have no images of that walk. I managed to step back in time when I visited the set of Murder By Decree at Elstree Studios around the same time. It was Sherlock Holmes takes on Jack The Ripper and I recommend watching it, albeit it was a lot of rubbish but with a superb cast.

I still feel there is a great television market for a programme based on a format of where are they now featuring names of yesteryear . Whatever happened to that civil servant who updated us on the Falkland War? Where is Peter Duncan, who I employed a long time ago, who became famous as a Blue Peter presenter. I think the young bosses of main stream television should factor in that us older viewers do count, especially as they are losing younger viewers. Until next time keep well until how next ramble down Memory Lane .

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios