It struck me recently how much-changed are the woman-folk of today, compared with the days of my youth.
I was reminded of this while looking over a book I once wrote on the subject of gymnastic pyramids.
It was called Gymnastic Pyramids, and it was a book for Teachers and Leaders of Gymnastic Classes, with hints on Combined Horse Vaulting and Agility.
Capital letters - and gymnastic pyramids - had a lot more respect before the war.
Of course, women and girls were not considered equipped for the activity of developing a human edifice by the standing of one or more fellows on other fellows' shoulders in a marvellous exhibition of skill and strength.
The British Association for Physical Training, for one thing, would have been highly unlikely to brook such a display by the sex more associated with modesty and grace.
And the average woman, of course, is both physically more delicate and temperamentally more nervous than a man.
But I was to find, as my career in gymnastic pyramid training progressed, and the war receded into memory, more and more women becoming involved.
And I found once the weaker sex took up the discipline they became exceedingly keen, and could be depended on to put up a really very good show.
Which brings me - rather obviously, I suppose - to the latest series of Forbrydelsen, the scintillating Scandinavian psychological crime drama with season-long storylines scripted by Soren Sveistrup (screening on Soho).
I have in the past - and would do so again with not the slightest hesitation - placed Forbrydelsen on a televisual pedestal with The Wire and Breaking Bad.
Some don't like it, certainly, but those are the sort of fellows who would buckle at the base of a gymnastic pyramid and bring the whole damn thing crashing to the grass.
And they could easily be replaced at the base of such a pyramid by a woman: Sarah Lund (Sofie Grabol), the driven and emotionally distant Danish detective at the heart of Forbrydelsen.
Series three is broadcast on Fridays at 8.30pm, and it will this week reach episode three, a matter I have been unable to alert you to, due to a medical affliction.
Ask the nurse to buy the DVD if you missed it.
It is, of course, quite excellent.
The kidnapping of the daughter of a wealthy businessman leads Lund (who has a new jersey) back into the world of Danish politics, and its financial and criminal communities, as she tries to solve the crime.
As always, each episode of Forbrydelsen is darkly gripping.
And in this confusing modern world no doubt only Sarah Lund (a woman) will exhibit the mental gymnastics required to shed light on that darkness.
Unmissable.
- Charles Loughrey
