Where’s Phillip Schofield gone? Are we even allowed to ask?

If you make people live in a world of pure imagination, don’t be surprised when they start believing absolutely anything, writes Tom Peck

If you can’t just say the truth then sadly someone else will (Getty)

It could hardly be more like something out of a dystopian novel. A bright warm day in May and the clock strikes 10. The music plays, the titles roll but suddenly missing from the video tape is the man who’s been there for 23 years.

His co-presenter’s not in the pre-roll either. Both of them have been replaced by some weird graphic text written across various buildings.

Where’s he gone? Well, as is probably known by now, he agreed to “step down with immediate effect”, over the weekend. And so, after more than two decades of hosting one of the country’s most watched TV shows, his passing is marked by a 30 second tribute, delivered by the relief presenters, drafted in from the weekend slot to try and pretend everything’s fine.