I was going to ignore this story when it came out a couple of weeks ago, for the simple reason that Hilary and I had not seen them.

UFOs over Stratford, England

We’d been out at the time they are supposed to have appeared – so it must have been a load of tosh; that was until ex-BBC Radio 4 editor, Rod Liddle, mentioned it in The Sunday Times yesterday (29th July). Let me quote you from his column…

“ Flying saucers have been spotted circling the night sky above Stratford-upon-Avon. A collection of bright lights hovered over the town and began darting back and forth.

“ This phenomenon was spotted at 10.36pm outside The One Elm pub, by some people who had been drinking all evening inside the One Elm pub. The light show continued until just after last orders. No official explanation has been forthcoming but we may, using the information above, grope towards a sort of unofficial explanation at least.

“ Or maybe not, because on Friday Nasa revealed its astronauts occasionally set off in rockets pissed out of their skulls. So we have another possible explanation: that a bunch of inebriated astronauts had messed up the controls of their craft and mistaken Warwickshire for a celestial body, maybe Saturn’s arid, chilly moon Hyperion, or an undiscovered palnet.

“ So what’s it to be? A bunch of paralytic people in the sky looking down and saying to one another: ‘What the hell’s that?’ Or a bunch of paralytic people on the ground looking up and saying: ‘What the hell’s that?’ Or neither? Or both?”

Personally, if there was anybody up there, I think it was Harry Potter and his cohorts, astride their broomsticks, checking out the queue at Waterstones.

What a difference a day makes. Nearer to thirty-six hours to be exact.

Hilary and I had scooted off to Cheshire on Saturday evening – staying at the Granage Hall Hotel, which is a large conference complex built onto the back and sides of a beautiful Victorian mansion situated just outside Knutsford – so that we could attend the last day of the Tatton Hall RHS Flower Show on Sunday. It was a superb sunny day too, even though the ground was still rather muddy from Saturday’s rain.

We left around 3.30, which was great timing because around 3.45 the heavens opened, quickly turning the car parks (waterlogged open fields) into even muddier car traps, especially if your own vehicle happens to be a very low to the ground MG sports car.

Once home, around 6.30, we decided to take a walk down to the theatre and river to see how far Saturday’s floods had retreated.

Quite a bit was the answer, with the remaining flood-water still half way across the Bancroft Gardens, which is on the theatre side, and wholly covering the park land on the other side, making Stratford look more like a lake side town.

It’s still pretty much the same today (Monday), although the Swan Theatre is opening for business tonight, with further performances of MacBeth, which is a fabulous show and one I shall be reviewing here in a day or two.

The real problems are now much further down river, especially in Evesham and Tewksbury, where the rivers Avon and Severn meet.

After our walk we ended-up in the Dirty Duck pub last night, where the wine and food tasted as good as ever.

My only wish now is that the British media gets a grip of itself and cools down the national disaster hype they’re peddling at the moment, and instead remind everyone of the truly devastating floods that hit New Orleans a couple of years ago, and continually hit Bangladesh.

Like the most of the rest of Southern England Stratford-upon-Avon awoke to floods this morning.

The theatre is pretty much cut off, with the flood levels still rising as water cascades down off the waterlogged fields, and, via the stratford Canal, into the River Avon.

I doubt if there will be any shows tonight (Saturday).