Truth behind the grin

Anyone who finds it surprising that the strike by American screenwriters will take hosts such as David Letterman (left) and Jay Leno off the air has not experienced the paranoid frenzy that accompanies the making of a television talk show.

Both in America and in Britain, writers on these shows are an essential ingredient of the self-induced terror reigning in the production office. The Talent, as the host is known, needs them. They're his comfort blanket, with their jokes, their fulsome praise, their servile giggling at his own quips - no matter how dire.

Every talk show host knows deep inside that he's not a comic, he's not a singer, he's not an actor, he's nothing. Writers