The second episode of the HBO/BBC mini series House of Saddam really got into its stride last night. Maybe because the main characters had been thoroughly established, or one got used to the idioms they were using. The main actor, Israeli Igal Naor, is incredibly watchable as Saddam, emitting the name Khomeini with a sound somewhere between coughing and expectoration. The bit where his poor wife dyed her hair blonde to emulate Saddam's new mistress was appalling. 'Do you like the new colour?' she asked. Silence around the massed table. 'No. It looks cheap' came the reply. I saw Mr Naor in the otherwise unremarkable 'Rendition' where he was brilliant, and sympathetic, as a police torturer in a country that looked like Morocco. He is at least as good an actor as the brilliant star of 'Downfall'. One can sense the Stalinist paranoia and suspicion with every flicker of his dark brown eyes.