When disappointed north-west firm Mace & Jones failed to get a mention on this page for a mock employment tribunal it ran last week, its PR people were put on the case to find another interesting angle.

Following some digging, a breathless marketing man informed Obiter that one of the witnesses in the role-play, M&J solicitor Helen Coogan, was none other than the second cousin of Alan Partridge comedian Steve Coogan.

'She had the crowd in stitches with a series of witticisms and wisecracks,' he revealed.

Obiter was more impressed with the firm's sheer persistence than by Ms Coogan's claim to fame, but here is a nice picture of her famous relative, anyway.

(see printed edition, Gazette [2003] 9 October, page 12)