Comment by defrost

It would have been more ridiculous had his wife left him for one of the burly men fitting the unit in place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_saga

   a subgenre of the family saga genre of literature ... typically interpreted to refer to "a tale of illicit rumpy-pumpy in the countryside" ... it offers a "gingham-checked world" associated with "thatched English villages" and "ladies in floral dresses".