Hello, my name is Glen and I am a commuter. Damn it feels good to get that off my chest!

For too long, people have given me that sideways look when I tell them how long it takes me to get to work. For too long, they've said to me, "What the hell do you do with your time? It must be so damn boring!"

Well, it's not and that’s because I’ve got a secret weapon.

While my fellow commutees are staring at spreadsheets on their laptops or trying to digest the messed-up logic of the latest Dan Brown novel, I'm happily ensconced in my own little world thanks to my fruit-branded portable media player. Being a fanatical TV and film fan, it's something of a God-send having an hour and a half each way on the London-to-Brighton train to catch up with the stuff that I've missed - it's time enough to squeeze in a few episodes or a couple of flicks a day, and that makes me a very happy geek indeed.

What has made me even happier is the discovery that iTunes now supplies a shed-load of flicks and shows to rent or buy on easy download and one studio that has been savvy enough to sign up to this unique service is NBC Universal - the self-same guys who were kind enough to give me access to a few of their latest releases.

Now the small screen of your average iPod Touch or iPhone isn't going to be worrying the owners of your local multiplex just yet, but if it's a way to catch up on the great movies you've missed that you're after, then you really can't go wrong with NBC Universal's offerings.

Such an intimate set-up as it is, there are certain films that probably aren't best served when you're sitting on a train, but it's a testament to the quality of most of the choice on offer that you really don't notice the difference between cinema and iPod screen. It helps that NBC Universal's current crop includes the likes of Frost/Nixon (an intense double-header that actually benefits from the intimate iPod set-up), Duplicity (a jaunty international espionage tale which happily transports users away from the banality of the 07.44 to Victoria) and The Unborn (a neat little horror that's perhaps a little too effective - nobody needs to see a grown man jump out of his skin on a packed train!).

The point I'm trying to make here is that there are options for my fellow track-travellers. Books are all well and good if you want to broaden your horizons, getting work done early is fine if you want to advance your career, reading a copy of Metro is great if, well, there's never an excuse to read that rag... but if it's a way to escape the humdrum and make those few hours pass by in a constructive and, above all, entertaining way, well fellow pilgrim, I say you should get downloading.

To find out about how to download NBC Universal's online offerings, simply sign up to iTunes (click here to find out how) and then click here to see what all the fuss is about...

Glen Ferris