David Mitchell — star of Peep Show — said in a newspaper interview that he has effectively given up on dating. “I don’t dislike being single enough to put up with the pain,” he said. “I could be trying much harder and people are up for introducing me to people,” he concluded, doubtfully … “ [but] just on the maths of fun, it’s not worth it.”

In many ways, it upsets the natural order of things to see David Mitchell say such a thing. As the very essence of thinking woman’s crumpet — in essence, a heterosexual Stephen Fry, but with the flashing eyes of a Gypsy violinist — one can presume that Mitchell would have been getting some good quality dating offers. Classy birds — ones with expensive knickers, first-edition George Orwells, and knowledge of niche Scottish distilleries. If a good-looking famous bloke finds looking for love too enervating — when he’s probably got women hurling themselves at him every time he pops to the corner shop for Yop — it does start to suggest that dating might rank as not a pleasure, but, rather, an unpleasant and risky undertaking, such as laser eye-correction. One that many might understandably just not bother with.