Julia went to work tonight but, having read the post from earlier in the week, she left me with a number of instructions.

My afternoon therefore passed in blameless fashion, taking a trip to the shop, watching quizzes onTV, preparing a light evening meal and most definitely not taking canine countermeasures. Julia says if I do that again she will take away my irrigation equipment. I assume she means the bucket, but I’m taking no chances.

She is back now, and having eaten, we are now watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

It is graded PG, as in “some scenes may be unsuitable for small children”. As Julia said, we watched it as small children, and it didn’t do us any harm. Things were different in those days: we had toy guns, corporal punishment and polio too.

It’s the first time we’ve seen it in colour, as it was all black and white TV in those days. Seeing a T.H.R.U.S.H. agent in a powder blue kepi for the first time was a little strange.

As for the plots…

I quite like The Avengers and various other programmes from the time, though some of them (like the The Persuaders), do make me cringe at times. I’m afraid that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. has been disappointing. Shame really, as it used to be my favourite. I suppose tastes change and what was great when you were five is not so good when you close in on sixty. Apart from ice cream and butterflies, I’m still quite keen on them.