Weddings are great for people-watching. You get to know which hatchets had been buried with the handles sticking out of the ground, and the best way to make carob syrup, as well as the new partners of some hitherto long-lost members of the tribe.
I was not surprised when one of the latter came up to me and said: "I like the way you write because you're sharp" - and this was closely followed by another, who said "I don't like the way you write because you're blunt".
This appears to be the case with the new, improved (read rebranded) TVM; there's no way you can be ambivalent about it. You either love it... or you could not care less about it.
As public broadcaster, PBS must be at the apex of local broadcasting. This will not be achieved by having a stylised flag of the Republic (minus George Cross), as part of the logo, fancy fonts, and an all-pervading jingle. The five ELD screens in the Beam-Me-Up-Scotty newsroom, behind deadpan newscasters, will count for nothing if "balanced" news continues to mean easily-digestible pap, which is worth watching, but not worth talking about, simply because news writers go out of their way not to make it controversial.
Neither is it forcing the corporate ethos on to production companies that buy airtime, making them replace their concern's logo so that the aforementioned square pegs can appear onscreen all the time to provide a sense of continuity.
It is the little things that make up the coherent whole; the ones that the public notice, and comment upon - not only at weddings.
There's Joanne Caruana, doing her links for TVM Kids from different towns and villages; a fun thing that creates movement outside a studio and encourages the younger generation to do likewise, as well as giving them pertinent regional historical and geographical information. She is basically doing the job those wonderful people known as continuity announcers used to do on Rediffusion; people whose voices we came to recognise and love (my favourite was Marlene Abela).
Ironically, the "brand" terminology that was so unproductive for the Malta Tourism Authority has been picked up and dusted down by PBS in order to bridge the nine-year hiatus since a similar exercise was last undertaken.
Being the Station of the Nation, TVM has the advantage over other stations in that it has a vast library of clips that may be used as the need arises. Il-Lejla Il-Lejla will be a classy programme hosted by Josef Bonello. Two guests - totally different in some ways but kindred spirits in others - will be in the studio for casual interviews; but these will be interspersed with vox-pops and exclusive footage from the TVM archives.
Whether or not TVM is a success story ought not to depend upon whether the board of directors and the editorial board see eye to eye all the time. Neither should we gauge it on how much money it has saved through streamlining, restructuring, sackings... or recycling envelopes, at least internally. This must not be drastic Arani Issa-style reconstructive surgery, but across-the-board esprit de corps.
When the PBS Website is finally given the thorough overhaul it has long been expecting, one might perhaps start enjoying the links between TVM, the site itself, and maybe the links leading to the producers' own site - and the occasional pullout in the Gwida.
After all, across the airwaves, there are several programmes vying for attention, not least the new programme on Net, which will be presented by Claudette Pace.
Persjani Mbexxqa will be the new weekly discussion series to go on air, starting on Thursday at 8.30 p.m. The production team includes Janice Darmanin and Lisa Libreri, with the multi-talented Louiselle Vassallo as director and Vanessa Attard as editor. By accident or design, this is a distaff team, and this may be partly the reason why the issues that will be treated will have a certain edge.
The panel of guests will discuss the nitty-gritty of abstract concepts such as "forgiveness".
The concept of Anonimi is also being used here; viewers may forward their questions or suggestions to persjani@nettv.com.mt, but an innovation is the programme's hotline, 7941-4345.
Meanwhile, one hopes that Radju Malta will pull the tag that says the name of the station in Maltese, and the frequency in English. I would also suggest that certain numbers be written down - just in case one has to announce the demise of another 102-year-old lady.
It goes without saying that I would still like a list of phonetic pronunciations for unusual words (Deutsche Welle) to be handed to each person who is due to go on air on the day. I would also suggest a differentiation between a zero and the letter O, when the former, but never the latter, appears in telephone numbers.
Another plus point for PBS would be to include Magic on its corporate Website, or at least in the di-ve portal, since one of the bumphs for it is "the listen-while-you-work station".
Just for the record, Magic 91.7's Mystery Voice contest has finally been won - after a caller correctly identified Kiki Dee (born Pauline Matthews), who used to sing backing vocals for Dusty Springfield, but who is most probably known for her duet Don't go breaking my heart with Elton John.