A. M. J. from Chichester asks how to persuade her friend to turn her television off when they visit her.

It is bad manners and uncouth to have the television droning away all day as vulgar visual and aural wallpaper. The telly can be a modern juju, as barbaric as that primitive object of superstitious worship. But it is not your place to tell your friend how to behave in her own house. Just make your conversation so entertaining that it blots out the nonsense on the box. PH

Dr Judith Langfield, Bristol: “This is a problem encountered often by GPs on home visits. The answer is to stand or sit, with one’s back to the TV set.”

Helen Croft, Dundrum: “Don’t speak to your hostess, watch a programme; when it ends, get up and go.”

Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby: “Say, ‘I didn’t catch that because of the sound of the television.’ Hopefully the set will then be switched off.”

June Bastable, Weston-super-Mare: “Try cupping a hand to an ear and earnestly leaning towards said visitee, while claiming loss of hearing through the recent onset of tinnitus.”

Readers are invited to send their responses to this week’s question by September 27. A selection will be printed in a fortnight.

Am I wrong to feel offended by couples who walk down the street hand in hand?

William Roberts, Cambridge

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