There’s nothing like a bit of granny’s home cooked food to lift the spirits. This is especially the case if your grandmother happens to be Patricia Tabram of Hexham. She spikes her food with cannabis. As a result she ended up in the law courts for pushing drugs via her ever-popular soups and casseroles.

The prospect looked bleak for the defendant, a prison sentence beckoned, but on consideration, and after enjoying afternoon tea with Mrs Tabram, the judge decided to give her a suspended sentence saying that he didn’t want to make a martyr out of her, and did she have any more of those homemade cookies, ‘they’re good shit, man’.

It does seem to be the end for Mrs Tabram’s lively dinner parties, however. This evening Hexham is said to be a town in mourning. Never again will a night of gluttony at Mrs Tabram’s end in mars bars all round at the local corner shop.