You're at the watercooler one morning, and everyone's talking about last night's Top Gear. You missed it? No problem - because now you can just nip back to your desk, download it, catch up, then come back to some serious Top Gear chat!
You can do this thanks to iPlayer, a new service from the BBC. Basically, you can see stuff you missed by downloading it to your PC (the guys in the white coats are working on a Mac version). You then have 30 days to watch it before the file eats itself. It's a bit like having a DVD rental shop in your computer, except this one doesn't do Hollywood, just BBC shows from the past week.
So, if that's the future, let's go there. I've got my login and password. What would I like to see? Top Gear, why not - I missed the polar special on Wednesday, when Clarkson drove a fat truck to the north pole, sticking a big two fingers up at our poor planet. Here goes ...
Oh, Internet Explorer is not able to open this site. Phillip on the helpline is helpful but can't help. It's probably because the Guardian's network won't allow anyone to install anything willy-nilly. It's probably the same in your office too. And internet cafes, Phillip says. iPlayer is more of a home thing, it seems. Do some work anyway! And to be fair, that watercooler chat probably didn't happen - event TV is on the wane, and iPlayer is going to help kill it. If we can get it to work.
The Guardian IT crew get on the case, and almost an hour after starting, we're back in business. Top Gear: download!
One per cent ... 1% ... 1% ... come on, hurry, the ice cap is melting ... Two per cent! And then things speed up and the one-hour show is in my "library" in 20 minutes. And here's Wednesday's Top Gear, on my PC, on Friday. Please let Jeremy and his truck fall through the ice.
When it fills the screen, the picture's not TV standard, but it's fine when it's smaller. I'm not getting the hang of fast forward at all though - far too quick. Whoa, he's there already (that's not the real north pole by the way, Jeremy).
Right, let's see yesterday's weather forecast, to see if they got it right. Oh ... there's no weather, or news, in the News and Weather section. But why would you want old news? I can watch Songs of Praise, the Book Quiz, Casualty, Natural World. An episode of EastEnders downloads in about a minute.
I think I'll just relive Padraig Harrington's victory in the golf from last Sunday. Oh ... there's no sport either, and that's more serious. This has to do with rights. Luckily I Sky Plussed the golf.
iPlayer is not hard to use. But nor is it simple - like Sky Plus is. TV should be about putting your feet up, not passwords and helplines. iPlayer may be the future, but it's not quite here yet. Hurry though, before Jeremy kills the planet.
