Passions: Spike settles down to watch Passions with Joyce. It's a real one-hour daily American teen soap - with bizzare storylines. Something like Neighbours meets Twin Peaks. The show features a witch named Tabitha and a doll she brought to life called Timmy. Weird.

Born of the Fourth of July: When Anya is quizzed by the Council, she makes up several bogus facts about herself in order to appear human. Among these are her birth date (July 4th, 1980), her full name (Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins) and her birthplace (Indiana).

Unqualified Witches: The Watchers' Council seem to think that Willow and Tara should be registered witches and each have a Magical Proficiency Level. Looks like the two wicca's haven't joined the Union.

Travers on TV: Harris Yulin returns as head of the Council of Watchers, Quentin Travers, having previously played the character in season three's Helpless.

Yulin is a stalwart of cult TV, having previously appeared in The X Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Wonder Woman.

Count Duckula: Co-writer Doug Petrie explained the genesis of the Knights of Byzantium when we interviewed him recently.

"We definitely knew that the Knights of Byzantium would be a big deal. For some reason I kept calling them - from Indiana Jones - The order of the cruciform sword. They�re a Holy brotherhood, but when you get to know them you realise they actually have a sacred duty, they�re performing that and they�ve been on the watch for thousands of years.

Somehow Marti Noxon turned [the name] into the Order of the Cruciform Ducks, [then] the crucified ducks, and the crucified ducks became their name in the writers� room for months to come. They were never taken seriously again.

So the Order of the Cruciform Sword which became the Knights of Byzantium. They were very deliberately masked [so] when Buffy unmasks one, it�s this really good looking guy. Having monsters to be revealed to be really good looking people is good for our ratings.