Richard Wiseman introduced the last thing before lunch on Sunday: a video conversation between Tim Minchin and Stephen Fry. This was interesting, if fairly relaxed and rambling, and was a substitute for Stephen Fry appearing in person as billed (though his appearance had always been "commitments permitting"). The discussion was philosophical, and — because it was Stephen Fry — also philological.After lunch Graham Linehan joined Jon Ronson (who was making yet another unscheduled appearance) on stage for a discussion ranging from Linehan's TV writing work (among them Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd), to his use of Twitter and other internet social media.
There were quite a few of these on-stage discussions and panels at TAM London 2010. Frankly I could have done with fewer of them. Too often the discussion format seems to allow the person scheduled not to prepare anything, and unless the "interviewer" is extremely skilled in the chat-show format the whole thing can become a bit unfocussed.
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