B.C. Four minutes after 12 and the fact that we just played out a pre-recorded interview with Tim Peake prior to the 12 noon news means that you've actually got your best chance ever to get through early on Mystery Hour. If you've tried and failed in the past, then now is your chance. Let me remind you of the rules. If it's a boring question, you'll be politely invited to move along.

And if it's a question that we can remember dealing with relatively recently,

then similarly, you'll be politely invited to jog on.

But other than that, pretty much anything goes.

And if you're wondering whether or not the question you're poised to ask is boring,

in fact, if you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about and what mystery hour is and why we're not talking about something in the news this hour, because

you're relatively new to the programme or the station. You stay where you are. I'll sort you

out in a minute. But first, dullness, well, if you can't really imagine many other people

being interested in the answer to the question that you're thinking of asking, then don't bother asking it. It's usually a reliable rule of thumb. It's by far from foolproof, far from foolproof,

but it is reliable, up to a point. A number of people interested in the answer seems to you

to be high, then it'll probably be an enjoyable addition to the mystery, our jamboree. Repetition and dullness are our enemies. The way it works is this. You currently

have, somewhere, nestling in your consciousness, a question to which you desperately need an

answer. You haven't been able to find that answer for love nor money. It's a who, a why, a what,

a where, a when, a whither, possibly even a wherefore. We've even had the occasional whence.

And somebody else listening to the programme will know the answer to that question.

The only other rule of mystery is you're not allowed to look anything up.

If it's something that you've read in the past and can remember, that's fine.

If it's something that you saw on telly last week, or last year, or back in the midst of time. But if you can draw it up from your memory and convincingly explain it, that's all fine.

That's all good.

But don't look it up now.

This is like an antidote to the Google-based society that we inhabit.

An antidote to a world in which we are laboring under an illusion that everything worthwhile is at our fingertips,

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