Back in July 1995, I wrote a letter to the Bucks Free Press, my local newspaper. I haven’t a clue what the subject was but it must have been something about which I felt quite strongly at the time, as I have never troubled any newspaper’s readers’ page since.

But whatever I wrote was sufficient to induce the editor, Steve Cohen, to ask me if I would care to contribute a weekly column. I never decline an opportunity to do something different and challenging, unless it involves vast physical prowess or pain, so I plucked my quill from its stand and started out on a journey that reaches a milestone with this particular offering. It is with a sense of pride, (definitely with a small ‘p’), that I write my 1000th consecutive column. And the consecutive bit has for some reason been important to me all these 19 years. None of your ‘Colin Baker is away; his column will return in a fortnight.’ In more recent years, I have found internet cafes all over the world. Back in the last century, when I started, I even had to use the postal service to send hard copies, to ensure my unbroken line of burblings. There was quite recently nearly a devastating break in the chain when I was late, the BFP offices were closed and I knew the paper would be going to press imminently without my copy. Steve Cohen has after two decades as editor moved on to loftier climes, but I had his number and hoped he could help. He could and did and my precious copy got into the works just in the nick of time. For that I am in his debt, which I can say without worry as the likelihood of his still reading my column is as small as his team Tottenham Hotspur’s chance of winning anything this year.

The response I hope to get from strangers who recognise me as this noble weekly’s columnist is ‘I enjoy your column even though I don’t agree with everything you say.’ That is how it should be. I am simply offering an opinion. My opinion. I don’t think what I say should carry more weight than what anyone else says.

Having reached this milestone I am now casting my eyes on next August when I will complete 20 years. Unless Peter Capaldi takes my place, of course.