Firstly thanks for your comment, to clarify,,
the airline is TAP Portugal, I get the impression it is not the airline at fault but need to investigate this further.
The travel agency is called Travelopedia LTD, the tickets were booked over the phone and then the payment made in to their bank.
I have several emails from them since. I believe they are ATOL registered.
we don’t have travel insurance, and they have offered us a flight with the same airline 4 days later. This means we have 4 days less on our holiday, the main problem is the knock on effect this has caused as the car we were due to pick up for hire for 5 weeks has cancelled our car and we have los5 the total amount due to late pickup.
hop this helps