Hi Guys, thank you so much for all your help.
Situation today is: Thanks to Raging Bull's easy to understand explanation of connecting my Virgin cable box to the TV he sent me, it works!!! I now know for sure the TV works and isn't faulty. After speaking to a technical TV person where I bought it to let them know it wasn't the TV causing the problem, I now need to check aerial cable they say. So I have just ordered a coaxial aerial cable with gold plated ends on line. Few days for that to come. It can't be the aerial itself because 2 other TV's are fine if used with the upstairs aerial connections, but tried it downstairs with my tv (very old) cable and they don't work either. So hopefully that might work. If that doesn't work the next step is:
Check the socket on the wall. So many thanks Scrubbs you have helped me there, especially with a visual aid! I will of course be using my very own pink screwdriver that I use quite often, when doing this
I'll let you know what happens.