Everyone was raving about a new BBC lifestyle documentary about keeping a loving relationship alive – starring my cousin SA and his wife LA! The quality of the production was superb, and it was no surprise that this show was such a success.

Meanwhile my own life was going down the tubes. I hadn’t seen my PhD supervisor at the University of Birmingham for months (and had no progress to report to him anyway), and I could tell that TPR was desperately seeking a polite way to dump me.