The problem with minced oaths and euphemism is that most people do not know they exist. And it's the same with lip reading; those who edit clips may not realise that muting the volume may not be enough - the lips of a person may have to be digitally altered for propriety's sake.

The people who present Paprati always bleep out the offensive language uttered by those who would have been duped. Unfortunately, they do not realise some of us can lip-read profanities. A case in point is what was said in last Wednesday's skit, where a man was asked three times to move his car since it was ostensibly blocking someone else's.

The incident happened during one of those inane, interminable, Christmas activities where bevies of girls in leotards perform similar dance routines ad nauseam. I would have thought the man would be thankful to leave the hall.

There are sometimes discussion programmes where guests pepper their speech with interjections, when they are not aware of their actual meaning. This cannot be corrected in a live show - but I have noticed that these expressions are not removed either when it is patently obvious that the show is recorded. Nor are they taken out when actors ad lib during drama episodes. Alas, I have heard the occasional uncouth turn of phrase come also from the presenters of children's programmes.

One of my favourite childhood parlour games was Ghax u Ghaliex. This required one to give correct and coherent replies to questions without using half a dozen specific words - why and because, yes and no, white and black.

• I am pleased to note that Arthur Caruana (XFM) has resurrected this old favourite. He explained, however, that he has simplified the rules and made them more radio-friendly. Here, it is only "yes" (and variants) and "no" (and variants) and "I do not know", which may not be included in one's reply. However, a person misses his turn if he fails to provide an answer in three seconds, and a reply to one question may not be repeated for another.

It is also forbidden to say "...emm" - something that would cause a good number of local radio and television presenters to have to quit the game less than one minute into it. But that's another story; it falls under the general heading of "I wish they would not say that" - such as when someone says something definite and then qualifies it with "biex nghidu hekk..."

I hope the game catches on again; it seems to be popular with listeners.

• Despite the fact that I support one of my friends who is standing for election on the Green ticket (in Saskatchewan), I normally find politics distasteful. So I am probably the right person to compare and contrast the coverage given by television stations to the EP elections.

Once again, Favourite Channel's news division came up trumps. To me, of course, it was overkill, but for people who are interested in the topic, Andrew Azzopardi, Anna Mallia and the team who took care of the updates and the technology made sure everyone was kept in the swing of things.

As expected, Net was quite conservative and One went way over the top, treating the whole caboodle as a dress rehearsal for the general elections. PBS gave its analysis after the 8 p.m. news; about time, too.

• The Take 2 people decided to forgo their holidays - and this was partly because L-Evangelisti ended in a cliff-hanger. However, viewers will not be getting just the closure of the storylines of Dwardu and Georgette (or Cesca!) for which they asked - rather, the series will continue come October, and the episodes aired so far will be repeated in summer.

So this is the perfect opportunity to try and backtrack why the characters acted the way they did in the latter episodes; it all hinges on their innate 'powers' and how these affect their lives and of those around them in ways that are not always crystal clear.

I am at liberty to divulge that workshops for actors are being held, with auditions envisaged to find actors for the second series and for an innovative music video.

A spokesman for the company told me that very soon they will be asking for the public's feedback through a site dedicated to the series; and aficionados are asked to check frequently for the character-centred novelties that will be appearing soon.

• Why is it that production companies whose programmes will be shown on One always seem to know about it weeks before those who would have submitted statements of intent to other stations? Is it that the latter make them sign a non-disclosure contract? Is it that schedules of certain stations have blank spaces, which are then filled with programmes that would have been refused, first time round? Is it that certain people need to be accommodated, although they would not have produced the goods by the submission date?

• News just in:

Sander, Owen, and Daniel (three-fourths of Zoo) are going to present a programme - Mosquito - on One TV. Inevitably, I asked whether the title derived from the two characteristics usually attributed to these insects - but I was told this is a programme aimed at youths.

The word is that there will soon be a new production before the 8 p.m. news bulletin on PBS; but I am not allowed to mention names yet.

television@timesofmalta.com