As Roger Coy tells John Peel his wife Wendy is telepathic where his quiet moments are concerned...

John Peel

It dawned on Roger Coy some six years ago that his wife Wendy's ability to detect his moments of quiet reflection and idleness, and put them to constructive use around the house was bordering on telepathic.

No sooner had he slipped into a momentary fantasy about lying in the sun with the newspaper when she'd appear with a chore. More eerily, she can detect the precise moment when he has finished one job and is ready for another. So the day is soon filled with peeling spuds and vacuuming, fixing doors. His consolation is that she does even more.

But does Wendy recognise her unnerving abilities? Not at all. Her usual retort is 'shut up and get on with it!'

Roger decided to test her abilities with some 'scientific' detection. Its easy enough to see how vacuuming could be monitored but what if he was to work very slowly? Or very quietly? The result was always the same.

Wendy even seems to factor in time for distraction! And she seems to be able to do it from a great distance. Once when visiting her parents 150 miles away, Wendy had left Roger with a list of jobs which he'd diligently performed. He'd just crossed the last of them off when the phone rang. You can guess the rest.