ARTS / And what's more . . .

The buzz on Middlemarch makes little of its expense - over a million per episode - or the fact that it was (rather acrimoniously) financed from other, already alotted drama budgets. As executive producer Michael Wearing says, 'A lot is riding on this' . . . Oliver plays the London Palladium this autumn, produced by someone who, at the start of his career, was its stage manager. Who? Cameron Mackintosh . . .