Perhaps it was historically inevitable, but the inevitable can still take you by surprise! A crack squad from Duck's Son and Winker (the west country's top media firm) has fixed an aerial on to the coalhouse roof. At first all you could see on the television screen was a misty blur of swirling dots and slow-motion dancing shadows. This was followed by a shape which resembled the grinning face of Mr Sliley next door poking out his tongue and wriggling his ears. When all seemed lost -and with Duck's Son and Winker poised to call it a day - there was a cry of 'ignition!' and our television picture burst into crystal clear clarity. That was when the radiant face of Lady Isobel Barnett made its elegant entrance into our star-struck sitting-room for the very first time.
The departure of my brother for Australia had created an emptiness that had to be filled. The TV set provided gave aus a sense of ersartz consolation. It was tinged with a residue of guilt: maybe he would have stayed here longer if our new entertainment complex had been in place.
Hoisting a television aerial up on your coalhouse roof is like waying a "We have joined the mainstream!" flag. Admittedly our flag looks almsot at half-mast. It takes just half a second to tell whether a household's aerial can pick up both the ITV and the BBC channels. So it was historically inevitable that within a few minutes of our brave new TV aerial flag being unfurled to the world one of the Slileys would lean out of his window and say: "Only got one channel then!"
Getting one had been a giant step for us - but in a fast-moving Consumer Society the goalposts keep on changing.
The old wireless life still lives on, especially in the early and late hours. The other night we were captiavted by a broadcast about a brash and super-confident American tycoon. The interviewer
asked him to spell out the key qualities that are needed to achieve business success. His two line answer penetrated the easy-going languor of our prefab like a cool icicle of unwelcome realism. "You must remember one thing" he said. (There was a brief pause which served to heighten the impact of the brash and super-confident tycoon's message. What a salesman this guy was!)

"Everything in this life revolves around the intelligent pursuit of self-interest!"

Not in this prefab, buster!