What kind of sick pervert listens to "Moneybox" at 9pm on Sunday?

I always do the washing up. This is to compensate for the fact that I rarely prepare  the food. Over the years, I've developed a touch of OCD about the ritual. I can't concentrate on anything else until the last plate has been stacked in the dishwasher, the last pot has been scoured, and the last spatula has been hung up in its place above the hob. Only then can I settle down to watch TV or have a bath or read a book or whatever. When I wash up I have to have the radio on. I don't really care what I listen to - I'm usually not concentrating on it: it's just a comforting noise, really. But on Sundays, no sooner do I start washing up than the presenter announces that the next programme is Moneybox and I have to dry my hands hurriedly and switch to another station.

This is no hardship, obviously. But it always leaves me wondering what sort of deranged person would actually choose nine o'clock on a Sunday evening to listen to a programme about what is either the most boring or the most upsetting subject on God's earth - personal bloody finance. I don't know about you, but any talk of mortgages, annuities, pensions, stamp duty, trusts, wills, ISAs, investment bonds or ways of avoiding tax always leaves me pondering all the financial mistakes I've made since I got my first pay packet. Why did I take out that particular policy? Why did I choose that stupid mortgage rather than the more sensible one on offer at the time? Why didn't I cash in this or that ISA before the market went tits up? What the hell is a "wrapper", and why don't I have one? How can all the people dining out at local restaurants every night afford to do so - let alone the bastards who go on three family holidays a year? Why don't I understand how money works???

Even the mention of the title Moneybox makes me feel anxious and inadequate and ever so slightly sick.

Look, I know there are times during the year when I've got to pay attention to this horrible stuff. But who in their right mind would choose to think about their finances an hour or two before going to bed during what - for most people - is their last few hours of freedom before the start of another week of wage slavery? Does anyone out there actually think "Oh goody - Moneybox! I was actually thinking of watching Downton Abbey or Homeland right now, but I'd much rather spend half an hour fretting about ending up destitute, so I'll be really worried and upset when I eventually go to bed"?

Okay, I can think of two groups of people who might welcome this sort of distraction. First, there's rich people who've got their finances totally sorted. Maybe they go to bed feeling really smug about themselves. Then there are people worried about what they'll have to face at work in the morning, and who, for some odd reason, haven't resorted to drink or drugs to quell their fears, but have decided to worry about money as a sort of displacement activity. But I can't see the point of being rich if you then have to waste time thinking about money: and, if you're that worried about work, surely you'd be better off watching an escapist period drama on the box rather than adding to the sum of your anxieties?

No, I just don't buy it - nobody in Britain could possibly want to listen to Moneybox of a Sunday evening. I can only assume the reason the planners repeat it at this time is because radio listening figures fall off a cliff at 9pm on weekends, and there's no point in wasting good stuff on the desperate souls who are still tuned in. Luckily, there was a repeat of Sue Lawley interviewing the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Max Perutz on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 Extra, and he chose lots of nice operatic arias.