They must have thought they were a combination of Venus in blue jeans and Mona Lisa with a ponytail. But Jimmy Clanton was nowhere in sight, and so, rather than being walking, talking works of art, they ended up looking like a bunch of immature fools, who were probably picturing themselves on the front covers of Cosmopolitan or Vogue... or perhaps even Diva or Curve.

Saturday last's Venere (TVM) had the audacity to broadcast a photo-shoot that had taken place at the Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery.

Someone must have realised that, locally, you don't get more a Gothic milieu than the magnificent temple - which, let me point out, stands on sacred ground - and so, it was only 'logical' to film on location. These days, it's not as if they have to fritter away time fiddling with footage, colour-separation overlays, and mattes, when a few clicks of a mouse can give top-notch results.

There are clothes you just don't wear when visiting the graves of your dear departed; and the ones portrayed in this sorry excuse for a fashion shoot were typical examples of these. The offence was compounded because, obviously, the models were not behaving themselves, but gadding about and following the photographers' 'give me right shoulder, frown, pout, more leg...' suggestions.

I wonder what steps, if any, will be taken by the Broadcasting Authority in connection with this affront to our religion, our heritage, and our deceased family members?

This body has slapped fines on certain production companies, or pulled the programmes outright, for much less - just as it has sometimes let occasions flow because they were 'firsts'.

Viewers are under the impression that each station has someone who vets programmes for potentially offensive content before they go out. Was this abomination deemed suitable viewing because it was aired after the watershed hour? Or did the person who allowed it to pass see nothing wrong in this insolent, irritating, sad excuse for 'entertainment'?

• The bird's-eye view of people who seemed to spend most of their time at a dinner table are all but forgotten. Less so are the squabbles between self-styled 'personalities' and their erstwhile production houses, and the chequer board moves of presenters, directors, and other people between one station and another.

However, it is pertinent to point out that Radio 101's loss has been Favourite Television's gain. Joe Vella has moved from the former's Nightcap to presenting 7,000 on the latter.

As its title intimates, 7,000 intends to condense, through tight editing and a stylish format, our country's history, intermingled with a selection of current, mostly cultural or edutainment events. However, history, folklore, traditional items, including foods and furniture, the local music scene, and natural history will all be featured.

Of particular interest, no doubt, will be an Antiques Roadshow-type section, where viewers may produce heirlooms or other antiques in order to obtain professional information about them. Indeed, the scope of the series is 'From the Megalithic temples to the plans of City Gate'.

Mr Vella tells me that our island republic, albeit a tiny scrap of land in a land-locked sea, has a history that surpasses that of far larger and more eclectically diverse nations.

This programme goes out live on Thursdays at 6 p.m., and is repeated on Fridays and Saturdays at 1 p.m.

• There has been some talk - make that gossip - about why this year, one of the regulations for entries in the Malta Eurosong 2010 festival indicates that candidates (artists, composers and authors) must be Maltese nationals. If they hold dial citizenship, one of them must be Maltese.

It is probably the first time that bands are being actively encouraged to participate in this festival. Judging from the following some of them have, this is probably not a bad idea at all - if one agrees with the whole concept of the festival anyway.

For those who are still unaware of how the system works, suffice it to say that singers over 16 years of age have to be prepared to leap over three potential hurdles ('phases'): having their effort selected as one of the 36 that make it through the first step, as selected by a professional jury (of course the names are state secrets); participating in the TVM programmes, from which 20 singles will be chosen by a (different) jury and televoting, and thence on to the finals, from which will be selected the winner who will represent Malta in May's Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Norway. Again, the winning song will be chosen through a combination of 50 per cent jury and 50 per cent televoting.

Further information, including the regulations, are available on the PBS website www.pbs.com.mt - which is more than I can say for the programme schedules since, to quote verbatim from the site, "Sezzjonijiet tas-sit, fosthom l-aħbarijiet, għadhom taħt kostruzzjoni" (certain sections of the site, among which is the news division, are still under construction), as they have been for quite a while.

What I really wish for is a place where people may leave their comments; so that I could pass on some of the ones that I receive each week.

television@timesofmalta.com