Visually of course, Omagh was a prettier sight than the menacing waves of the Atlantic Ocean off Peggy's Cove. And there is not much point after a point of simply pointing a camera at the wideopen ocean with nothing more the ebb and flow of water to capture.

Still, there seems to be something remiss or even obscene with what is after all a mass media concentrating on a few individuals (in life or thereafter) while the `mass' are by and large missing except as a backdrop or props for the few.

Discovery Channel is one channel which tries to go beyond celebrities and delves into the lives or deaths of ordinary people. For instance, it has specific programmes or slots for indepth coverage of human tragedies such as the Swissair crash. There is Shipwreck which believes that the Titanic was only one of many which went down under. It devotes itself to the others. In doing so, it employs a Discovery specialty: that is the ability to meld the real with the dramatised, to alternate between the two smoothly, to collapse the two into one skilfully created whole. And it works beautifully. People who survived an accident are shown recalling the incident, which is simultaneously recreated by actors playingthem. Much more interesting than watching politicians playing themselves.

Or take last Sunday's programme on Laughter. We've all learnt about it being the best medicine, that jolly people tend to complain less about aches and pains than dour ones. But how and why? Discovery helped explain the phenomenon with scientific tests, laughter therapy classes, chemical brain reactions and interviews with scientists who have studied people laughing.Another compelling subject is what happens to human beings in extreme climatic or geographical conditions. Here too, Discovery is able to merge fact and its fictionalised version with remarkable finesse. Last week, several cases of death and survival in the desert and in snowbound conditions were recreated. Fascinating was the human will to survive the most exacting demands on the body and the details Discovery provided about the reactions of body in such circumstances. For example, a young woman died because she continuously consumed snow in ice-bound conditions while herhusband who did not, survived.

These are shows of universal appeal. They inform and educate. People don't necessarily always want to be entertained. Knowledge can be more seductive than Monica Lewinsky. Those who think public service broadcasting is dead in the marketplace of modern-day television, should think again. Discovery and National Geographic Channel are commercially driven but their programmes are in the public interest. Are you watching, Doordarshan?

Last week, the serial Chandni (Zee) made a formal exit. With farewell speeches from the main actors. Those who have followed the serial will know that Chandni has been secretly planning the decline and fall of her father-in-law. Even before he became her father-in-law. Indeed, she plotted to become his daughter-in-law in order to reduce him to a quivering lump of flesh. Which is how we see the last of him: his head shakes one way, his body twitches the other and he's blubbering like a baby when she points the gun at him even as husbandShabaaz Khan entreats her not to ruin her life (and by marital association, his). She lowers the gun and thereby ends a tale of love, violence and revenge. But don't despair: it will be replaced by another one: the serial is dead, long live the serial.