ACTOR Timothy West and playwright David Edgar (right) joined members of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Equity and the NUJ demonstrating in support of the US writers' strike, outside the Trades Union Congress building on 28 November. The first effect of the strike was to cripple US TV talk-shows by depriving them of spontaneous ad-libs. See www.wga.org and www.wgaeast.org for updates.