There is no escaping the fact that not only are winds now blowing a seasonal cold blast, but it is the annual time for pantomimes and jolly audience participation with the obligatory 'It's behind you', plus the boos, hisses and cheers.

Which is, perhaps, a somewhat corny way of introducing the fact that jolly hunters are doggedly hunting the elusive trail - 'It's behind you' - and hoping that no-one in the audience will wonder why trails should be laid through woods, alongside hedges and merrily crossing busy roads.

But these pantomime villains - 'boo', 'hiss' - have convinced themselves that no principal boy or girl in this reality show would suspect skulduggery.

Enter, stage left, a group of hunt monitors - cheers - "What kind of game is this", they cry as the hounds and riders pursue a fleeing fox that has been cast in the role of village idiot by suddenly and mysteriously appearing in the midst of baying hounds and hot-footing it across the fields.

But see, bounding out from his hiding place comes The Fool, dragging a piece of cloth on a string.

"Ah, look" cry the followers. "There goes the trail".

Tension mounts - do the hounds know, or care, that they are supposed to be following that trail, or will they be wicked and pursue that which they are now not supposed to pursue?

Dear readers, compose your own ending.

The monitors, meanwhile, review yet another piece of footage that will interest the officer of the law.

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