A deluge of rain lashes the floor-to-ceiling windows. Aside from my scepticism, I don’t wish to believe there’s a karmic storm brewing over my personal fate. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got enough challenges in the here and now.

Mitzi returns the stone to me. I drop it inside the pocket of my coat.

‘Did you hear about Howard?’ she whispers, changing the topic.

According to the station grapevine, Howard is the latest person to be axed on Titan’s chopping block. A cantankerous, borderline alcoholic whose show, Nature’s Best, had, admittedly, seen better days, Howard is nonetheless something of an industry legend, having once jived around a live-to-air set as a – thankfully – tamed carpet snake chased a lively white mouse up and down inside his corduroy trousers. All of it was filmed in front of an audience of delightedly squealing schoolchildren, and no less a VIP than the highly amused HRH Prince Philip, consort to our lovely Queen. Legend has it Howard overdid his habitual morning vodka before taking to his small stage filled with animals. The mouse escaped the cage, the snake escaped Howard’s clutches, the ensuing chase became TV gold at the time. Today, Howard Gladstone is something of a YouTube sensation for generations too young to have seen it first pass. When I first got the job at SC6, he was the only person Jordan asked about me meeting.

‘He’s gone,’ Mitzi confirms. ‘Howard. Who’d been here for, like, ever.’