Small world: Fashionably single? Bijou space? Welcome to the dream mini-kitchen. Photograph by Adrian Burke. Plus, the search for David Duchovny

Anyone living on their own knows that you don't need a full-size

washing machine to launder a few pairs of knickers and a couple of T-shirts. Likewise, there's no point in owning a massive fridge if it's just to keep a pint of milk fresh and a bottle of bubbly chilled. What you need are compact appliances, specially designed for the single- person household - and, at the latest count, 27 per cent of homes housed only one person, compared with only 14 per cent in 1961. The other main advantage of these mini-appliances is that they are perfect if you have a kitchen not much larger than a cupboard. What's more, many of these white goods are as handsome as their bigger relatives and more economical to run. Martin Skegg and Michael Oliviera-Salac

The compact kitchen, from left

Tefal Washboy 5027

Economic and efficient. Can be set up permanently or stored after use in a cupboard.

470mm x 395mm, 2kg capacity, pounds 76.99

Tefal customer services, 01604 762726

Cooker (photographer's own)

Sharp Compact Microwave R-211 (shelf above)

The 0.6 cubic feet oven is as small as it gets, unless you are a Barbie doll.

449mm x 282mm x 369mm, pounds 94.99

Customer Careline, 0800 262958

Tefal Midi Vitesse Kettle 78445

Squidgy in texture and big enough for tea for two.

1 litre capacity, pounds 29.99

Tefal customer services, 01604 762726

Haier WQP3-1 Compact Dishwasher

Cute design that comes in three colours and can also be used to store dishes and bowls. Not to be mistaken for a bread-maker.

470mm x 437mm x 425mm, pounds 299 (available later this year) Electro-Aire, 01276 477494

Haier HR60 Refrigerator

Groovy convex VCM door panel, energy efficient, with ice tray.

501mm x 500mm x 515mm, pounds 119

Electro-Aire 01276 477494

Zanussi TDI62W Studio Compact Tumble Dryer

Rear venting, comparable with the features of a grown-up model.

680mm x 500mm x 530mm, pounds 149.99

Zanussi Customer Careline 0990 140140

whereits@.the.x-files

Never mind what happened to the plot in Mulder and Scully's big-screen debut next week, "what happened to Mulder's butt?" is the FAQ (frequently asked question) of the moment on X-Files discussion boards. "We shot it," says Duchovny on Entertainment Weekly Online. "It was me in a hospital gown. But the sight of my bare ass 40ft high on the screen was just too frightening even for X-Files fans." The FBI alien-baiters have an enormous and obsessive net following. Sites range from anal analysis of the show's labyrinthine storyline - will smoking man die of cancer? - to idolatry - "The X Movie ROCKED!!!! I've seen it eight times!!!' - to every permutation of sexual fantasy about Mulder and Scully and their famously unconsummated relationship. In the Temple of Gillian site, Anderson is found railing against faked sex shots of her on the net. "I've seen one picture that somebody has doctored where I am meant to have pulled down my bra to expose my breasts! They've put in these two implant-filled breasts in place of my not-so-huge non-implant ones." (As all true X-philes know, series creator Chris Carter famously championed Anderson for the part of Scully in the face of studio demands for someone rather more bodacious.) Duchovny, meanwhile, is a rather different story, and while there's fakery, there is also plenty of stuff out there from the days before he made it big, in the conventional Hollywood sense. One picture which crops up repeatedly shows someone who looks uncannily like the self-confessed sex addict, wearing nothing but a strategically placed teacup - and not a flying saucer in sight. The truth is out there. Jonathan Dyson

http:www.thex-files.com/ the official X-Files site