Oh, England had its problems too, but he felt a kind of nostalgia for the football hooligans, the tabloid press, and the small-time drug dealers who loitered near the park. He spent weeks at a time without being knocked on the head.

That whole evocation of England works really well - not glamorous but mundane, as it actually is for those of us who live here, even in tourist places. I love the way Spike still has backchat for Giles even in his present state. And tgis really does show how easy it is for Giles to become disconnected from what is happening in Sunnydale, which makes his later actions more explicable.

Ben is Jenny?