(publication unknown), April 2002

The dove of peace was heard in our house last Sunday and led to a quarrel. Judy and I were watching episode two of The Foryste Saga and a summery garden scene between Old Forsyte and his headstrong artist son, Young Jolyon, was playing out.

A pigeon cooed drowsily in the background; "Coo-coo, coo ... coo-coo, coo." I sat up. "But taht's impossible," Judy stared at me.

"What's impossible?"

"That's the call of the Collard dove. It didn't reach Britain until the Fifties. It couldn't possibly be heard in Victorian England." (For a brief period as a boy I was interested in ornithology and some things just, well, stick.)

Judy looked coldly at me, "If you say anything as boring as that again, I'm watching this in another room."

Of course, I sulked for 10 minutes, but the overwhelming sentiment of the unfolding episode soon had us holding hands again. Soames' and Irene's pain was our reconciliation.

Caption: Marriage guidance: Damian Lewis and Gina McKee as Soames and Irene.