Unfortunately there was no one in the studio to get really angry at except Elisabeth Croll of the School of Oriental

Unfortunately there was no one in the studio to get really angry at except Elisabeth Croll, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, who seemed to think it appropriate to smile incessantly, and a Chinese doctor, unforgettably named Lulu Langtree, who was there to defend China against any allegation that might crop up And that was an end to it What should be done remains an open question. So far all that this programme has accomplished is to antagonise the Chinese government and make it impossible for other British film-makers to work in China.And so to the great avenger of oppression across the globe: yes, it's George Bush! We've had two sections of BBC1's dogged and doting The Gulf War, with two more to come. I've watched them all, and none put so sharply into focus the reality of war as Maggie O'Kane's one-hour Riding the Storm (C4) did last week. The reality of war is - despite all the improvements in communication and supposed freedoms of speech - an unabashed stream of lies, damn lies and statistics. A nonsensical agenda (continually revised), propaganda voluntarily spread by duped reporters, political posturing and a hell of a lot of human suffering: this is what lay behind all the colourful video games that filled our TV screens.

But relatively few Western soldiers were killed, so for Bush it was a triumph.Calling Saddam another Hitler, Bush ached to destroy him. Yet, curiously enough, it was only Saddam's invasion of Kuwait that disturbed Bush: what Saddam did to his own rebels afterwards, or to the Kurds, was of no concern. This is like fuming over Hitler's invasion of Poland but ignoring what he did to the Jews. And after thousands of Iraqi deaths, the fireworks display of smart bombs, dumb bombs, radioactive, chemically and biologically contaminated bombs, missiles and anti-missiles and all the other entertainments of violent conflict, it turns out that soldiers on the winning side are coming down with cancers and Iraqi children are getting leukaemia. Neither simple nor heroic, the war was just a sordid show of strength.One seeks solace in small things: a working typewriter, vanilla tea, the Newbury bypass protests and ... the appearance of a new kind of strongman on The Paranormal World of Paul McKenna (ITV). Having apparently decided that stage hypno- tism's a bit iffy, Paul has thrown himself into proving that strange things do happen Strange, but boring, things.

He's found a Ukrainian, Lavrinenko, who spends his time electrocuting himself with enough volts to kill a sheep. He can slow his heartbeat down to zero, or speed it up (this trick seemed to cause unnecessary alarm in the audience). He can pull a 40-tonne steam engine with wires attached - through his skin! - to muscles in his arms (we were advised not to try this at home). And he can sink to the bottom of a large fish-tank and stay there, not breathing, for several minutes (I think, five).He's not the only person in the world who can do such things But he's the only person who wants to. Accompanying him in his endeavours is his wife-cum-interpreter, who monitors his pulse and goosebumps I guess it beats being sawn in half by a lesser magician.. TWELVE hundred years ago the Danish brought you rape and pillage; now it's bacon and pastries. These are the insignia of the settled, stable domesticity that makes Denmark a pleasure to visit - the same domesticity that created problems for the British opera administrator Elaine Padmore when she took over the Royal Danish Opera in 1993.

Her brief was to shake the place up a bit, raise the standards, remove the dead wood (aka old and much-loved Danish singers), and things have clearly not been easy. Visiting Copenhagen this week, I asked someone active in Danish musical life what he had to say about Padmore. His only comment was: "She seems to have survived." On the evidence, she seems to have survived rather well. Her contract has just been renewed; the quality of her productions is riding high (witness the Love For Three Oranges that came to London last summer); and her company is about to enjoy an unprecedented profile, as Copenhagen assumes the role of European Capital of Culture for 1996. Like so much else in Copenhagen at the moment, the Culture Capital programme is be- ing run by a Brit, an expatriate architect called Trevor Davies.

Although you may detect a note of national self-reference in the Danish Opera's opening contribution to the programme - Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet - the fact is this piece has precious little in the way of territorial identity at the best of times, and still less in the production it gets here from yet another Englishman, John Cox. He stages it as Victoriana, with Hamlet a Byronic Pre-Raphaelite who has wandered into one of his own paintings, and Ophelia an Elizabeth Siddal look-alike, wearing the long hair and Aesthetic Movement central parting familiar from all those solemn narrative canvases you find in the municipal galleries of Northern towns.It could have been over- embellished, fussy; but against stark, clean-cut sets it works extremely well, and even manages to generate excitement which, for a lame old duck like Hamlet a la Ambroise Thomas, is an achievement. In 28 years of concert promotion, Gubbay has produced around 150 concerts a year, including the "Classical Spectacular" series (featuring lasers and dry ice) at the Albert Hall, "Teddy Bear" concerts at the Barbican (reduced prices for those accompanied by soft toys) and an "Opera Singalong", also at the Barbican, which offered the audience a chance to join in. RAYMOND GUBBAY, concert promoter, is the man behind the recent Melody FM Christmas Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which included such elevated offerings as "Have Yourselves a Merry Little Christmas", "I Believe in Father Christmas", and the one that goes "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire", all introduced by the DJ "Diddy" David Hamilton. This is a man who is not afraid of the popular, not trammelled by notions of high art - or even, of good taste.