Bare-bottomed criminal intent at Ambridge Hall (Rousse)

I won a star role in an all important, much trailed, Friday night episode of The Archers.

David Archer was happy to release the stranger that we found sleeping on the floor in a back corridor of Ambridge Hall. However, Lily Pargetter and I suspected that just as soon as darkness fell, this scruff would steal the treasure concealed in a nearby cupboard. We were also pretty sure that he would be carrying on his body some clues to his criminal intent.

‘Pull down his pants!’ shouted Lily.

‘There’s nothing here’ declared David as we all stared at the limp member presented to us. (Was it permissible to display genitals in an episode of this much-loved BBC radio soap opera. I wondered?)

‘What about up his rear?’ I asked. The stranger shrugged his shoulders, turned around, and stuck his bottom in the air. The long plastic-wrapped piece of cardboard secured between his cheeks looked like toothbrush packaging. All the characters in the scene concluded that only the police could confirm the criminal purpose of this item.

Our work complete, Lily and I stepped out into the sunshine, stroked two cats (one bottle green, the other a glowing amber), and waved at the tourists drifting down the Am on a pleasure cruise.

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Paying off a £1M drugs debt (Rousse)

Just as I did when I was a teenager, I left my bike unlocked outside ECM’s house, entered the back door, shouted a hello to ECM’s mother, then climbed the pale wooden ladder up to ECM’s bedroom. There we chatted, lounging on the raffia carpet that was littered with craft materials.

Soon after my arrival, ECM made a shocking revelation. In the 1990s she spent nearly all the money left to her by her father by paying off the drug debts of my sister S. It crossed my mind that ECM was hopeful that she’d finally see the repayment of this huge sum now that S was about to come into her own inheritance. A big issue, however, was that S had always overestimated the amount of money that would eventually come her way. S owed ECM almost £1M; her inheritance would be less than a tenth of this amount.

The other bad news was that vandals set fire to my bike while I was indoors with ECM.

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A soaking for a pie in Lochinver (Rousse)

On the promise of a pie, GC agreed to drive the four of us – himself, TPR, JC and me – to Lochinver.

When we reached the edge of town, we parked the car and paddled along the shoreline in the direction of the pie shop.

Unaware that the tide was coming in, GC, JC and I soon found ourselves up to our waists in water. TPR, however, sat smugly in the shallows in his swimming shorts.

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A feather baby, the Hanoverian succession, and a multi-coloured merganser (Rousse)

Deep in grief following the death of my two-inch long human ‘feather’ baby daughter, I found some solace in explaining the Hanoverian succession to an Indian.

Meanwhile a nearby stranger plucked a pink, white and orange-plumed merganser duck out of the river. We all stroked its beautiful back before its release (unperturbed) back into the water.

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Household lighting and dirty laundry at the White House (Rousse)

My brother-in-law M bought an ornate pink and grey painted, fake antique, half-size wooden standard lamp as a birthday present for my sister J. He thought that it looked great plonked in the middle of their bedroom on its very own Persian silk rug. My sister was unimpressed – so much so that she believed that her husband no longer loved her.

Meanwhile I was at the centre of an argument at the White House, Hartburn. It started when I pointed out to my mother that it would make more sense to place dirty sheets and towels in a linen basket rather than fling everything on the floor of the upstairs kitchen. This escalated into a full scale row as I went on to list many other grievances about the standard of household management in our family home.

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Miami Withnail (Belle)

It wasn’t completely clear whether my new project, being filmed in Miami in a beautiful, bright colour palette, was a documentary or not.

I was following two young American strangers as they took too many drugs and repeatedly failed to show up for work. At one point, they were both so impaired that, as they walked down the street, they simply fell out of their trousers.

This was not their lowest point, though. In the middle of the afternoon, they broke into a mansion and walked into the swimming pool. Here they were joined by a passing bear, and the three of them hugged quietly.

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Abduction on Teesside (Rousse)

I could tell that the police concluded that I knew a little too much about the abduction of the girl from Teesside High School. If I were an innocent bystander, I should not have known the name of the victim.

However, my cast-iron alibis were such that the detective knew for certain that I couldn’t have been involved in the crime. Now I just had to keep to myself that my sister S was the source of my privileged information.

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A timber frame house on the Isle of Skye (Rousse)

TPR was now the proud owner of a beautiful new timber frame house built on a remote coastal spot on the Isle of Skye. I loved the floor to ceiling windows for the fabulous views that they gave out to sea. I also admired a corner of the kitchen that had been decked out in yellow, and decorated with yellow and white ceramic ornaments. This had to be my work.

Less attractive was the house’s white plastic front door. It appeared to have been used by all and sundry to measure and record the heights of each and every visitor to the building.

TPR was also annoyed that a scruffy bearded pipe smoker had taken up residence in his otherwise tidy sitting room.

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A disputed TV quiz champion and Boris Johnson the clown (Rousse)

I was excited that the winner of a top television general knowledge quiz show was keen to meet me – even though I had heard the rumours that he was a cheat.

I was less impressed when Boris Johnson – dressed a clown outfit – appeared next in line to shake my hand.

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Book group dinner ideas (Rousse)

I opened the fridge door looking seeking inspiration for the meal that my book group pals expected me to serve within the hour. Whatever could I concoct from a few parched slices of corned beef, some limp lettuce, and a box of tomatoes on the turn?

And how soon could I prepare the plates? DM was particularly keen to eat quickly because she needed to head up to town for a series of Edinburgh Fringe performances that evening.

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