For ages, my husband and I have been debating whether or not to get wired up for cable television.

Some weeks we don't feel too bothered about only having the choice of four terrestrial channels.

These are usually the periods in our lives when we're flooded with social invitations or when we've both got good books on the go.

But there are numerous other times when we sit down in front of the box with our dinners on our laps and find there's nothing worth watching other than Delia doing sensible things with boiled brisket.

And that is when we start looking at what we could have been viewing if only we were subscribers.

This week, after hearing from Delia that you would need at least half a dozen different sieves if you were ever to consider yourself a kitchen deity, we again skimmed through the TV guide to see what else we were missing.

Neither of us is bothered by sport, so we ignored all the choices that could have provided us with live coverage of FA events or golf from Santiago.

"I quite fancy E4," I said. "If you have that you get to see ER before it's on Channel 4."

"But look at this," said my husband, referring to the schedule. "You'd then get So Graham Norton on four times a day and Celebrity Deathmatch, whatever that is."

"All right, what about FilmFour," I said. "Don't they have lots of great movies?"

"Yeah, right. We could be watching something called Elimination Dance right now. Ever heard of it?"

"Oh! How disappointing," I said, deflated. "What about the other film channels?"

"Sky Premier is showing the George Clooney film, The Perfect Storm," said my husband, showing a little more enthusiasm. "But it's surrounded by a load of dross. We might as well go to the video hire shop and get something we actually want to see."

"Well, there must be something worth..."

"Ah-ha," interrupted my husband. "This is what we want - the Sci-Fi channel. It's got The Time Tunnel, Wonderwoman, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits... fantastic. Nothing boring there. What do you think?"

"OK," I sighed. "But if you have that one, I'll have UK Drama. It's showing two of my old favourites - Howard's Way and Tenko - TWICE a day."

My husband looked appalled. "No way Howard's Way! And as for Tenko, it was awful the first time round. Why torture yourself with it again? You must be a glutton for punishment."

"Well, if I can't have that, you can't have the Sci-Fi channel. Fair's fair. I don't fancy a whole evening spent with you hiding behind the sofa from the Daleks."

Whoever said television would kill the art of conversation had got it completely wrong. This was the most passionate exchange my husband and I had had with each other for weeks.

Eventually the only service we could agree on was having one of the rolling news channels, such as Sky News or BBC News 24.

But then we debated whether it really worth paying a monthly instalment for something we would probably still rarely use.

"You know," I said. "It's only when you look at all the other rubbish available that you start to appreciate what you already have."

"Well, isn't that just life," said my husband giving me a tender look.