LIKE Bryan Lawson, I thoroughly enjoyed the feast of entertainment on television during Christmas.

I loved the long soap episodes, but with one notable exception.

Who decided to kill off Jamie in EastEnders? To bring this 20-year-old to such a tragic and unnecessary end was totally uncalled for - Jamie was one of the very few truly nice characters in a nasty soap.

Mind you, I do watch it avidly I'm ashamed to say, despite its horrible cast and obsession with spitefulness and violence.

I remember when Dot was going through a particularly bad time (her son, nasty Nick, was trying to bump her off) many people suffered varying degrees of depression and even felt suicidal.

I would have cheered at the demise of Cat Slater, Janine Butcher or Phil Mitchell to name but three, but Jamie! I shed quite a few tears at his passing, I must confess.

Heather Causnett,

Escrick Park Gardens,

Escrick, York.

...BRYAN Lawson may well praise the quality of television offered at Christmas (January 3). Indeed, the programming was so good that I have never watched so much on QVC, the shopping channel.

It is a shame we cannot do something useful with the rubbish on TV and all that hot air as we do with local rubbish and the methane it produces - to generate electricity near Knaresborough ("Rubbish turns to power at dump site", January 4).

Dr Duncan Campbell,

Albemarle Road, York.

Updated: 13:07 Saturday, January 11, 2003