After 6 hours and 25 minutes, my friend, who I was also buying a ticket for, got through and bought for us after a mere 4 hours so saved me the trouble of trying even longer. Buying tickets should not be a lottery like this.

This is absolutely *%$£"! ridiculous. Were it not for one artist who visits these shores infrequently and who I absolutely don't want to miss, I wouldn't have wasted even more of my life on the end of an unanswered phone line. Ruth, if people took days to get through last year that is even morer ridiculouserer!

My questions are:

1. Who is in charge of this ticket farce? Cambridge FF? The BBC? Some subcontracted agency? Whoever it is, they should be ashamed, sacked, or both.

2. Is this deliberate? There is more clamour for something the rarer or more difficult to obtain it is. Is this part of some deliberate ticket hype?

3. Err, that's it.