Visions Before Midnight

The title derives from Sir Thomas Browne: Dreams out of the ivory gate, and visions before midnight.

Before being contracted by Observer editor David Astor, James had previously written one piece per month on television for The Listener and its editor, Karl Miller, had been an important influence on James.

Like Lichtenberg Karl Miller appreciated the kind of joke that unveils a problem: if your gags had a serious reason for being there, they stayed in."

In the preface James says that the idea of publishing a selection of his television criticism had been in his mind since speaking with Kenneth Tynan at a reception at the Garrick Club.

James had been lost for an answer at the time but in the Preface replies, "It isn't necessary to know everything – just to remember that nobody else does either."