On and on I knit, and have at last got to 12” on the body of Miss Rachel. Measuring circularity is not all that easy. And I injudiciously laid it on the floor today at a critical moment in the early evening television-viewing – and it turns out to be big enough for a cat to curl up on, if she makes a fairly tight circle.

So, no knitting during the news, but I mean to go back and watch the latest episode of Victoria any moment now.

I am tempted to skip the final episode of “Cuckoo’s Calling”. The reviews make it sound too complicated. The trailers for the new series, starting Sunday, sound very attractive. Can’t I just start again there? I will read the books, when I am clear of all this Italian revision/Sicilian history.

But I agree with every word you say about the television Strike, Shandy. Convincing, understated, humorous, attractive. How could you imagine him differently, Hat? I may understand once I’ve read the books.

I remember once going to one of those author’s-book-readings at a Waterstones here in Edinburgh, to hear P.D. James herself. She said that Roy Marsden’s portrayal of Adam Dalgleish on television was indeed wonderful [anyone who can remember will agree], but that he was not the Adam Dalgleish in her head as she was writing him. In that case, the Marsden Dalgleish fitted perfectly with the reader’s impression. At least this reader’s. Who could have been the alternative man whom P.D. James thought she was inventing?

And, Shandy, thank you for Duolingo. I have spent a lot of time wandering around cyberspace lately looking for Italian lessons, but I hadn’t spotted that one, and they’re good. I think I need to download an app, somehow or other. I keep getting the message “You didn’t test out of any skills”, even when I’ve done pretty well. I’ll keep at it. And, meanwhile, I have learned – and written down – my own mobile telephone number, and pursued, so far without result, a flesh-and-blood tutor.