There was a slow comfort in feeling a few scattered snowflakes against his face and for a while he cherished the pain of the cold as it purged his thoughts and frozen dreams.

‘She could never be mine,’ he whispered into the empty night.

Then he turned, opened the door and walked into the solitude of his empty home.

On Tuesday evening, shortly before eight thirty, Vera was surprised to hear the doorbell ring and find six men standing outside. They were the church bellringers, led by Archibald Pike.

‘Good evening, Vera,’ said Archibald. ‘We’re here for the demonstration.’

‘Pardon?’

‘On the television set,’ explained Archibald. ‘Joseph told us to come along after our bells practice. He said it would be of particular interest to us men.’

‘Really?’ Vera stood back. ‘Well, you had better come in.’

In the vicarage parlour Joseph was busy rearranging the chairs into a semicircle around the television set. ‘Joseph, the bellringers are here – and why are you moving my chair?’

‘So everyone can see the television set. I want everyone to have a good view.’

Vera did not like her furniture disturbed. ‘You failed to mention it to me.’

‘Sorry, dear, it must have slipped my mind. It’s just that I saw it in the Radio Times, so I mentioned it to Archibald and he said the rest of the bellringers were keen as well.’

‘Keen? Keen on what?’

‘The television cook, Philip Harben, is giving a cookery demonstration. It’s called The Man in the Kitchen.’

What a waste of time, thought Vera. She knew a lost cause when she saw one. However, with true Christian spirit she breathed deeply and composed herself. ‘Would you like some tea, gentlemen?’

Vera’s comments over breakfast the next day clearly fell on deaf ears, because on Wednesday evening the Holy Dusters, the church cleaners, arrived to watch Welcome to City Varieties from Leeds. It was a lively variety show, the members of the audience were dressed in Edwardian costume and the music was far too loud for Vera’s liking.

Thursday was even worse. Vera usually went to bed at ten o’clock, but Joseph had invited members of the Parish Church Council to come back to the vicarage following their monthly meeting in the village hall. They all enjoyed a programme about the Household Cavalry, and even Vera was interested as they were to play a big part in the forthcoming Coronation. However, at 10 p.m. no one was keen to leave when the next programme, Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?, started. It was a fortnightly quiz programme in which a panel of experts, including Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the Professor of Archaeology from the University of London, attempted to identify a series of unusual objects.