You have to hand it to TalkTalk they CAN talkthetalk. I have just spent 1:20 on the phone and spoke to a manager there - he was in the Philippines. Out of range of the typhoon now! He was charming but still difficult to understand at times.
Anyway, he changed some of MY settings from his desk and I think I am more or less OK. It turns out one of my addy's is still down. But then the batteries in phone went phut! In short I now have 4 primary addresses working with a password they devised but easy to remember but I haven't actually finished the 'job' because I will have to use the new password in purchases etc., He admitted this was a major happening in TalkTalk and he is going to investigate some compensation for me - but I am not holding my breath. What 13 days without email is worth must be something................!
The essence of the problem appears to be with BT but how it happened in the first place I don't know. It seems that they are as bad as each other and can't run a reliable service. Well, that's my thinking anyhow.