Peter Rhodes on a north-south divide, a 1990s drama and when's the best time to sell a car?

Their advice is that “now could be a great time to sell your car”.

Two points. Firstly, I live more than 100 miles from London and never drive there. Secondly, in what bizarre parallel universe is the best time to sell your car when thousands of other drivers are trying to sell theirs?

Best hang on and see what plans Rishi “Friend of the Drivers” Sunak comes up with. We seem to be shaping up for something new in British democracy - a general election decided by cars.

On the principle of Ulez I am not only impacted but torn. I quite like the idea of streets being closed to reduce congestion, so long as it's not my street.

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A “great North-South divide” has allegedly been discovered by researchers investigating local customs, including calling your evening meal dinner (South) or tea (North).

What struck them was the passion generated by issues such as whether the clotted cream goes on the scone beneath the jam, as in Devon, or or top, Cornish-fashion. Four out of ten people admitted to having argued over such things.

And I was never sure if a Devonian was joking when he explained to me: “In Devon we put the cream on first, whereas in Cornwall they sacrifice babies to Beelzebub.”

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Sian Gibson, star of the bright new BBC comedy The Power of Parker, says part of the attraction of setting this drama about a philandering boss in the “casual sexism and misogyny” of the1990s is that “in a pre-digital age, with no Google, texting, or e-mail trails, it would have been much easier to hide his secrets!”

Not necessarily. Back in those days there were these things called poison-pen letters.

And while The Power of Parker may strike some as a long-lost world, I wonder how many women today, particularly those working for a predatory boss, will watch the show and conclude that while shoulder pads rise and fall, some things never change.