What do you get when you cross a comedy series and the white heat of internet technology? The July 19 premiere of BBC Three’s The Mighty Boosh on broadband, a week before transmission on digital television. All episodes will be available to view for up to seven days after the final episode is transmitted on BBC Three. The gradual but certain disintegration of our well-worn television viewing habits is sure to follow as such innovations gather pace.

www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree

LONDON STAR SEASON

Ben Brantley, The New York Times chief theatre critic, was unimpressed after his latest tour of London’s star- crammed West End stages.

“There is something doll-like — as in made by Mattel,” he wrote about Ewan McGregor’s turn in Guys and Dolls.

He turned to Blood Wedding: “Tales of passion work only if you feel the participants are on the same destructive wavelength.” Yet Gael García Bernal brings to mind “a neglected puppy, nipping at the ankles for attention”. Then, it’s on to David Schwimmer in Neil LaBute’s Some Girls: the Friends star “acts as if motivated by electric prod”.

www.nytimes.com

CAPTURING A MASTER

It is 11in high, just over 8in wide and cost between 45 and 50 million dollars. In the New Yorker, Calvin Tomkins untangles the complicated tale behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s purchase of Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna and Child. The painting was famous in art- historical circles as the only one of the Siennese master’s dozen or so surviving works to remain in private hands. Its whereabouts had been uncertain since the death of its last registered owner, the Belgian collector Adolphe Stoclet. In fact, it never left his house in Brussels.

www.newyorker.com

PODCAST OF THE WEEK

Podcasts are the latest thing in legitimate internet downloading, MP3 files of radio shows or just people yakking that can be downloaded through the latest version of iTunes or via an internet site. One such site is Top of the Pods, which specialises in Podcasts of its users’ all-time top ten lists. Everything from amusing riffs on the best comedy acts to the finest crisp flavours can be found here, and the site is open-minded and lazy enough to accept submissions.

www.topofthepods.com

BLOG OF THE WEEK

Geraldine McGreevy, who sang Gerhilde in the Royal Opera House production of Wagner’s Die Walküre in March, provides rare and welcome insight into the life of a soprano on her blog High Notes.

On “Claiming the role”, she says: “Something fell vocally into place when I was working on Act I of Rosenkavalier. It’s as if at a certain point in the learning process my voice takes ownership of a role. My imagination begins to transform me into that person a long time before; I start to identify with the character and situation and develop a sense of role-self.”

www.geraldinemcgreevy.com/highnotes