By Ian Herber
It sounds like a long shot, but Yorkshire fisherman Robin Beevers sent his girlfriend, Ellen Wardle, a series of SMSs claiming to be from "three men in a van" who had abducted him. Police spent 120 hours on the case before finding him. Beevers, 39, and Wardle, 24, have since had a baby.
It's called the Lady Caroline Lamb method. She stormed into a dinner party being held by the Duke of Wellington and made a scene over Lord Byron, whom she badly wanted back - but he was having none of it.
So she cut off her pubic hairs and sent them to Byron in a letter. This might have contributed to the irreversible break-up in their relationship, so perhaps not advisable.
Orlando Bloom could think of none but Brad Pitt, who had just split from Jennifer Aniston at the time, to turn to when things went wrong with actress Kate Bosworth. Keep it simple. Pitt told him. Take her somewhere modest and don't spend too much money.
So much for your friends' advice. Bloom simply decided to buy her a diamond ring. It worked. "I love my partner more than my career," she said.
There's apparently a theory that you can tell how good someone will be in bed by their dancing. The slicker the syncopation, the better the sex - so the logic runs. That was part of supermodel Gisele Bundchen's strategy when she tried out a dance on her ex, Leonardo DiCaprio, with some red-hot moves at a New York bar. It brought them back together.
Jane Austen's Darcy finally makes up for misdemeanours in a scene best known to many by various TV adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. "You have bewitched me body and soul," Darcy tells Elizabeth. "I love, I love, I love you, and I never wish to be parted from you from this day forward." Hard to better.
As Alfie Moon in EastEnders, Shane Richie had a relationship with the sister of his girlfriend Kat Slater, played by Jessie Wallace. It was Kat's relationship with Alfie's grand-mother Victoria that did the trick in the end. So overcome was Alfie by her death that Kat headed off into the sunset with him in a Ford Capri.
Dave's wife suspects him of infidelity as their relationship flags and has the bags packed and in the hall towards the end of Peter Cattaneo's 1997 film The Full Monty. But then Dave reveals that he's been rehearsing a strip routine but, with his self-confidence at rock bottom, can't go through with it. Why, asks his wife.
"Well, who wants to see this dance?" he asks, peering at himself. Her reply: "Me, Dave. I do," rarely fails to raise a sniff.
Orpheus tried this in the Greek myth after the death of his wife, Eurydice. So mournful were the songs that the nymphs and gods of the underworld wept and encouraged him to travel to the underworld to find her.
The one stipulation was that he should walk in front of her and not look back until he had reached the upper world. In his anxiety, Orpheus broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight.
Needless to say, they felt it in their fingers, they felt it in their toes. Love was all around when Carrie (Andie MacDowell) arrived, soaked through, on Charles' (Hugh Grant) doorstep at the end of Four Weddings And A Funeral.
The ensuing final kiss sealed their reunion.
Alexis Colby in the cult 1980s series Dynasty nabbed her ex-husband Blake Carrington when he lost his memory and held him for months pretending they were still married. Over in Dallas, Pam was reunited with Bobby by explaining away his death as "all a dream".
Zoe Ball seemed blissfully happy with Norman Cook until 2003, when she admitted having had an affair with a littleknown club DJ called Dan Peppe. There was a brief separation but the couple managed to sort things out.
It all went wrong for Oliver Martinez, one-time solid partner of Kylie Minogue, when he was forced to quash rumours that he was showing actress Michelle Rodriguez and Israeli model Sarai Givati the sights of Paris. He realised his mistake was honest, admitting he was jealous of Minogue going on holiday with film director Alexander Dahm. They've since been seen cuddling.
Richard Nixon was so determined to win back one girlfriend that he drove her to her dates with his love rivals and picked her up later. Complex strategy; inconclusive results.
Well, that's what Ross and Rachel did in Friends, at the end of series five. It didn't actually work, of course. At the start of the next series, they got an annulment, though it all worked out in the end.
The millionaire owner of Crystal Palace, Simon Jordan, is reportedly leaving no stone unturned in his bid to win back former girlfriend Sarah Bosnich. Friends report frequent SMSes and an unexpected encounter at the Soho Hotel in London. "When she ignored him, he followed her into the ladies' toilets and dragged her out," a friend said.
Not for the faint-hearted Romeo, but it was the only option for Tarquin Southwell, polo-playing ex-boyfriend of model Jodie Kidd after their volatile five-year relationship hit the rocks. He entered the rally because she had, though the affair was ulimately doomed.
In Beethoven's opera, Fidelio, Florestan and his wife Leonara are separated when he is unjustly thrown into prison. She disguises herself and sets him free for their reunion.
During her 20-year wait for the return of her husband, Odysseus, Penelope kept admirers at bay by refusing them until she had completed a burial shroud, which she never did. On his return, Odysseus, dressed as an old beggar, saw her faithful qualities.
They work in the end for Lysander and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
This appeared to keep John Prescott's marriage intact after his affair with Tracey Temple, his secretary. "We were both busy with our jobs, but we sometimes managed to squeeze in sex," Temple had revealed.
In ITV's Cold Feet Adam (James Nesbitt) won over Rachel with this spectacular proposal of marriage, accompanied by his memorable rendition of I've Got You Under My Skin.
That's what lovelorn financial manager Ray Purvis did when his marriage wasn't working. His re-enactment of the rose scene was arguably even bolder: he took his clothes off and walked down the street clutching two bouquets of red roses, with a flower clenched between the buttocks.
His wife Louise agreed to lunch, so they could work things out.
After a string of affairs, Sven Goran Eriksson had his work cut out winning back Nancy Dell'Olio. The promise of marriage and children seemed to do the trick.
An engagement ring also helped. There is, as yet, no sign of a little Sven. - The London Independent