I apologize if this is a repeat suggestion as some of the replies I get are
just ASCII dumps, including in the archives.  Maybe something wrong my end?

I have a suggestion for you Alistair.  Given that you are on your own, do
you have a timing light?

If you hooked it up and put the light somewhere where you can see it from
the drivers seat and crank the engine, if it flashed as usual would this
not tell you that the coil, HT wires, distributor, rotor and Hall sensor
are working okay?  Not sure what it would tell you about the ECU as my bus
has points.