The dread terror of nuclear annihilation has always been one of my favourite fears, but, as it has for the rest of the world, that fear has waned as the decades have ground on.
Up until the 1980s, it was a popular, well-loved fear, evidenced by the number of movies that featured a post-apocalyptic world.
That world looked like an awful lot of fun, peopled as it was by muscular, mulleted men with big cars and even bigger guns.
Nuclear annihilation has been replaced, in Dunedin at least, with the fear of annihilation by stadiums and rates increases.
But Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Rialto, November 1) takes us back to happier times when the bomb was front and centre in the collective consciousness.
Just why we no longer worry about this matter rather escapes me.
A quick check shows that from a high of 65,000 active weapons in 1985, this most excellent of worlds now boasts about 8000 active nuclear warheads and about 23,300 nuclear warheads in total.
And, believe me, that's plenty.
Dr Strangelove, with director Stanley Kubrick's other masterpiece The Killing, begins nine weeks of what promises to be excellent viewing, as the Director's Classic Collection features two movies each by such luminaries as Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorcese.
And another look at the movie, which explores the madness of a nuclear shooting war, shows just how good film-making at its peak can be.
Peter Sellers' ad-libbing as he plays the part of, among other characters, the eponymous wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi nuclear war expert, sits near the top of classic film moments, as he battles to control a right arm with a mind of its own, which continually attempts the Nazi salute.
As a black farce on the insanity of the nuclear deterrent, it is both a "finally, there's something good on TV" moment, and a useful reminder that worthy fears have not been ameliorated, merely shuffled to the back of our collective mind.
For those who don't have Sky TV - or don't have Rialto if you do, Prime is debuting Sold on November 25.
Sold has a good cast and quality production, but can't seem to make up its mind if it is a quirky drama or a comedy.
It is, sadly, neither funny, nor dramatic.
The series is set in the offices of Colunbrine's Estate Agents, where the employees are fickle, ruthless and cheerfully dishonest, apart from the show's hero Danny (Bryan Dick).
Anthony Head, always excellent as the (usually) straight foil of a Prime Minister to rampantly gay `Sebastian' in the BBC comedy sketch show Little Britain, also features, as does Nina Sosanya, from Love Actually and Doctor Who.
Sold is disappointing, but probably worth sticking with to see if it improves.
