You'd have thought that I would have had enough of courtroom dramas having been in a few of my own over the years.

Surprisingly however I still enjoy them. In fact I've been helping to research them for the past couple of weeks.

Part of Tommy's law course involves him studying various court based films, and their content and subject matter.

He's been given a list of movies to watch centred around the judicial system. I have fairly enjoyed re- watching some of the old classics like To Kill a Mocking Bird with the tremendous, elegant actor Gregory Peck. He was always one of my favourites and was revered not only as an Academy award winning star but also as one of Hollywood's true gentlemen. He was never involved in any scandal or bad mouthed in books or stories about the goings on in the movie business. When he portrayed Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil it was so unusual to see him as a baddie but his performance was unforgettable.

We've been watching some relatively new movies and to be honest they've just not got a patch on the oldies.

We are even able to let Gabrielle watch the films without being anxious about censoring them, although she did ask why nobody wore colours in the olden days. I am looking forward to watching A Few Good Men, Twelve Angry Men and both versions of Cape Fear. This is at least one part of a law course I could pass.

Plastic bag charge

Yesterday saw the plastic bag levy come into full force for all shops and fast-food take-away shops. A five pence standard charge will be added onto bills. I've been training myself for a long time to use my own sturdy hessian bags of which I have enough to build my own tent in the boot of my car.

Many years ago I watched a documentary about the menace of plastic bags on the environment. The sight of wee dolphins choking to death on discarded supermarket bags was enough to urge me to actually try and get rid of the habit of accepting a plastic bag with everything I bought and stuffing them into a kitchen cupboard were I swear they bred. I had to laugh at some of the newspaper fashion pages which were giving examples of the various shopping bag styles swamping the market to cash in on the new rules.

One of them even reviewed the tartan shopping trolley. I had one of those years ago and got slaughtered by my sister and most of my pals. I also have wicker baskets which I use and put up with the taunts by the aforementioned of being called Anne of Green Gables. Well they will not be laughing now.

In fact they will be running the legs off themselves to buy their own trolleys and baskets. Sure there are arguments against this plastic bag levy but I think the overall aim of encouraging recycling of existing plastic bags and the production of less of them is admirable and worthy of experimenting with. It is about changing bad habits in the name of improving our environment. I support it. Pack your empty bags before you shop folks.