cattle prod

As an actor, Dowd relished portraying the black-and-white belief system of early Aunt Lydia — in those initial days on set, she would walk among the handmaid extras, slamming her cattle prod down on desks and barking instructions.

As the metal detector beeps, she has to unload a knuckle duster, cattle prod, several knives and Thing - a disembodied hand - from her bag, before a security guard challenges her about the tube of sun cream she is also carrying.

A charity worker attacked her neighbours with an electric cattle prod and damaged their cars amid a parking row.

A court heard how Attwood-Rees was armed with a knife, a saw, an electric cattle prod and a garden shovel when she attacked the couple on 30 May.

In the ’80s and ’90s, there always seemed to be somebody behind us with a cattle prod telling us what to do.