The List: Great swoons

Hero in Much Ado about Nothing, on being accused of infidelity; Marianne in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility on hearing of Willoughby's desertion; Aunt Pitty-Pat Hamilton in Gone With The Wind, often and irritatingly; Sleeping Beauty, until Prince Charming showed up; Princess of Wales in Vancouver at Expo 86; Gillian Taylforth in court after she lost her libel case.

THEY ALSO FAINT: Jonah, from the sun (Jonah 4:8); Shelley ('I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire'); Jesus, three times on his way to the Crucifixion; Basil Fawlty on meeting a food inspector; Lord Hartwell, former proprietor of the Telegraph group, while coming to terms with Conrad Black.