Two of my shares looked like basket cases to me. They both fell like rocket sticks at a bonfire, before I could even dash in with my usual 7% stop loss. (I call it the 7% solution after the Sherlock Holmes story).

The fell so far that it was hardly worth selling them for the meagre value that was left. I refer to two media groups ITV (LSE: ITV.L - news) and the Mirror Group. (I think the latter call themselves something else now, but the epic code is TNI.) When I told a friend in the city that I still held Mirror shares, he gave me the look reserved for chaps with only seconds to live.

Now both these shares are making a recovery. And this happens quite a bit with companies that fall heavily. Somehow or other, they get their acts together and stave off downfall and they pull their socks up. Encouraging, eh?
ITV wavered because of all the competition that sprung up. Not just more TV channels, but the growth of electronic games, like Play Station and X box.

Generally speaking, todays television is dire in my view. Were expected to enjoy watching very ordinary couples, with nothing to say, picking very ordinary houses, accompanied by estate agents. Give me Quatermass, any day.

Any road up, apart from rotten programmes, advertising was drying up due to the recession and that growing competition. But along came X factor and some take-over talk – and this week ITV shares are picking up again.

But their recovery story is not as good as the Mirror Group. They do own a lot more papers and stuff than the name suggests, by the way. The sported a very lowly share price in the run up to last Christmas, but now, a year on, the graph looks like the face of Everest. (You only climb the mountain once, so make sure its Everest.)

Why should TNI pick up so well? I think its because the world is getting more bizarre and we need to read about it. But at the same time as the world is getting more interesting, the population is not. I try to administer a ballroom class and a rock n roll club, and I find more and more people would rather stay home in front of the telly. Another good reason to buy ITV, mayhap. God bless.