Thanks Franc, for all your help - Bob - I hear you too!

My machine went from bad to worse - it stopped heating the water -
which set me about thinking what the real problem was...

It turns out that the capacitor and transformer being slightly cooked
was all a red herring :-(

I realised that, becaus ethe motor/drum still all worked that the
triac/transformer must still be working.
Also, because the controller's LCD screen worked etc etc, that the
capacitor (part of the supply to the time/controller) can't be the
problem either.

So, I unplugged the machine and sat down to dismantle it.

After I had stripped off the front cover (the big springly thing
around the rubber door seal was a surprise as was runnning my finger
around the rubber seal itself and catching it on the rather sharp
metal frame it covers giving me a nasty cut on my finger) I discovered
some really very burned out leads going to the element and the
temperature sensor)

Turns out the original real problem with the machine not clicking onto
the Rinse and Spin was a well know symptom of, you guessed it, heating
circuit problems!

I was so sure it was the capacitor and transformer!

So, its late at night, its a Friday, there are no spares shops for
miles - what to do?

Well, I took the burnt mess that was the sensor, ground down the burnt
plastic unti lI found the contact and soldered on new wires. I
checked its resistence (abou 4.6K ohms) and that its resistence went
down when heated (I stuck it in my mouth!) - so that was still working
(!!).

The element contact had got rather burned so I cleaned that up too. I
checked its resistence - 40 ohms which, I found on the internet, was
about right. So I replaced the wrires with some thickish mains cable,
put it all back together (I actually wrapped some duck tape around the
sensor in the hope of stopping any shorts/arcs from the element
contact too)

When I ran it up it all worked - Hoorah! Clean clothes!

I cannot believe how burned the sensror was and still worked but I am
not complaining.

Thanks.