Rebus fans, take comfort: Ian Rankin is pondering reviving your hero. When Colin Dexter tired of Morse, the poor old copper passed away. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had earlier killed off Sherlock Holmes as he too did not want to write any more. Rankin’s final Rebus book came out last autumn, with the Edinburgh writer retiring him. It was a canny move, leaving the possibility that the detective might return in some form. I now hear from both Rankin and his publisher, Orion, that Rebus might be in a new book next year, working for the Scottish “cold cases” review board, which looks into unsolved crimes.

I bet there’s also pressure from ITV, which wants more Rebus dramas. It is usually the TV companies that keep policemen working well after retirement. Jack Warner turned 80 before he stopped playing Dixon of Dock Green; ITV’s Taggart celebrates (if that’s the right word for this tired drama) its 25th birthday this month; and 68-year-old David Jason remains Detective Inspector Jack Frost. Who says our policemen are getting younger?

There’s been a bit of a spat between the culture minister, Margaret Hodge, and various galleries and arts bodies over the appointment of trustees. Hodge wants more women, whom she says make up only one-third of trustees. However, this has slowed down the appointment process as the minister, who has the final say, has not been happy with some of the names being offered. This has left the V&A, for example, with five posts still to be filled. I expect three will be female when finally named.

There was also a recent row when Niall FitzGerald, the former boss of Unilever and now chairman of the British Museum, wanted one of his trustees, the economist David Norgrove, reappointed. Hodge had sought a woman in his place. FitzGerald faced down the minister and won.

So, yes, let’s get more women trustees, but only if they are best for the post. The government should seriously consider Paula Ridley, former chairwoman of the V&A, as the next chairwoman of English

Sir Richard Attenborough’s very enjoyable memoirs, out this week, feature numerous anecdotes, including one about having to sell the proverbial family silver to raise money to fund the making of Gandhi. Actually, it was his three much loved Stanley Spencer paintings that the director decided to sell, even though they were “the pride and joy” of his art collection. Still, the decision paid off when the movie went on to win many Oscars.

The National Theatre has clearly had a big success with its Travelex sponsorship, which has meant loads of tickets at just £10. This was supposed to bring in new audiences, and to some extent it has. But it is the middle classes, always looking for a bargain, who have been most skilful at getting these cheap seats. So the National has now introduced a £5 ticket scheme. This time you must prove you are aged 15-19.

Calendar Girls, the movie, raked in a fortune. The film was inspired by a Yorkshire WI branch whose ladies did a naughty calendar as a charity fundraiser to make money for medical research. What is not well known is that the calendar, film and subsequent showings on TV and DVD have also garnered £2m for Leukaemia Research. With the stage version now running at Chichester Festival Theatre before a UK tour, a proportion of takings goes to the charity, and theatregoers can also contribute. A fine idea.

Thomas Hardy fans are, apparently, delighted that BBC1’s new version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles was shot in Wessex. Jolly nice it looks, too, I can say, having seen episode one of the drama, which begins next Sunday, with Gemma Arterton as Tess. But from what the producer, David Snodin, tells me, it could have looked rather different. Budgets being so tight these days, Snodin went to Romania to see if it could double as Hardy country. Two days of Transylvanian mists were enough to put him off.

This Tess is a straightforward and faithful adaptation of Hardy’s book, which he wrote at the end of the 19th century. But what about the 21st century? Where are the original contemporary drama series? I was at dinner recently with the playwright Roy Williams, who has had hits at the National Theatre. He is pitching a new drama series to the BBC about gangsters in northwest London, which he is likening to a “black British Sopranos”. Sounds great. Even if it was half as good as that brilliant American series, I’d like the BBC to greenlight it.

richard.brooks@sunday-times.co.uk

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