TIME to 'fess up.

I've been wrong. And it's only right to admit it.

I could have sworn I was right. I felt it in my heart and head. It all made sense. It was all so obvious. And all so wrong.

So time to get these wrongs off my chest, not least because I committed them in print. First up, The Wire. I wrote despairing that hundreds of five-star Amazon reviews could be so wrong. The Wire wasn't the best television show in history. It was awful. So I said. At the time, admittedly, I'd a bee in my millinery about being unable to understand strong, streetwise American accents, particularly when mumbled. It didn't help that this was in the earlier days of flat-screen televisions, which had no proper outlet for sound.

Nor could I find much to identify with in fat, junk-food eating cops and drug-dealers in impossibly baggy trousers. However, friends urged me to think again. So I gave it another go and, albeit with the help of subtitles, I'm hooked. Terrific television. Loving it. So apologies to Jack and others who tellt me I was wrang.

Secondly, fat people. I said all these claims about an obesity epidemic were poppycock, on the thin evidence that none of my friends was fat. However, I take it back. Standing in the supermarket the other day, I looked around and realised I was the only non-fat person present.

Thirdly, The Silmarillion. I said Tolkien's lesser-known work was unreadable. Again, I gave it another go and, while the tome is not novelistic and has an undoubtedly dry style, it proves to be moving and mind-expanding too.

Clearly, I could have taken out a special supplement to right all my wrongs. But three will suffice for now.