It's hard to find much optimism about the Middle East peace talks but at least it provides some entertaining hokum for the BBC's spy drama Spooks.

This week's episode featured some clandestine parleying between Israelis and Palestinians in London and an outlandish plot to bump off the American president who was flying in to join them.

Actor Paul Freeman wrestled manfully with his lines in Ivrit as chief Israeli negotiator, the super-semitically named Levi Cohen. But I don't think he will be picked to run a Spiro Ark ulpan.