Mad Men news is not hard to come by at the moment. The second series of this wonderful drama series starts in the US very imminently, and there are stories galore out there. A few days ago the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, was quoted as saying that he has a five-year plan for the show, with time jumps after every series. “In the life of the series, if it continues, I would like to cover this period of people’s lives – and that’s a five year plan and not a ten-year plan,” he said. An AMC person was also quoted as saying: “What he meant was that he wants to leap forward between seasons, not just pick up where the last season leaves off. So he wants to cover a period of ten years in these character’s lives, in five seasons.” So we’ll get five years of the show, which will end in 2011. But wait. No sooner had these quotes circulated, they changed tack.

AMC then came out yesterday and said that Weiner never meant to reveal a specific timeline for the show. He was just, y’know, saying that he was planning to have timeline jumps between the series. OK. So not covering your tracks at all there AMC.

Elsewhere – there was a press junket earlier in the week, so this is where all these quotes are coming from - there are some great insights into series two (or spoilers as some people like to call them). Click here for a full interview with Matthew Weiner.

And, if you were wondering, John Hamm doesn’t get recognised in the street. He said that in this interview here. He also said in this interview that it took him five years to finally watch The Wire, and he hopes Mad Men will have the same longevity. He said that here.

There’s a terrific photo gallery right here, and I’m currently frothing at the mouth at the picture of 1960s Amazon woman Joan. Sorry.

The picture on the front page of this post shows an advertising campaign by AMC – it has taken over a subway car in New York with a massive picture of Don Draper and period furnishings. Cool, huh? This has prompted some people to ask what AMC, a small channel, is doing splashing out on a show that doesn’t get huge numbers. I would suggest that AMC can counter that with a swift, “Take a look at our awards cabinet.”

Please hurry to these shores Mad Men series two.