I was going downstairs to a concert, in the building where I live. I got into the lift. It set off – and then it stopped. I pressed the emergency button. A voice asked me what was wrong. I explained that the lift had stopped.

She asked, “What are you doing now?” “Waiting for you to get this lift going!”

A few minutes silence. Then: “I can’t get an engineer for four hours!” I said, “Don’t be ridiculous!”

She came back with, “Will it be OK if I send for the fire brigade?” I said, “Yes please, but make sure they’re under forty, good-looking, and with a sense of humour.”

Later, when the door was finally opened on the ground floor, there stood a fire-woman and three firemen kneeling down.

The first one said, “I’m under forty”

The fire-woman said, “This one’s good-looking – and they all have a sense of humour.”

“Well, we don’t normally get requests!” one of them said, when we had all finally managed to stop laughing.