It’s hotter than southern California, but the grotty toilets are enough to reassure me that I really am back in Britain.

A curiosity of two-leg flights is that you keep your seat while the identity of your neighbour changes. From LA to New York it was a woman who organizes promotional events for HBO; from New York to London it was the “VP Communications” for a British-based and American-owned theatrical production company.

The American HBO woman was surprisingly English; the English theatre man was surprisingly American. They both agreed that real innovation in performing media was currently to be found not at the cinema or on the stage, but in television. I agreed too—and I don’t even own a TV.