The hood of my XJS 1996 will not open

It is not as easy as you say Jim, unfortunately.
These guys did a nice photo session on a problem that we may encounter in the future too:

http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap_view.php3?id=1397486437

I’ve saved those pictures on my hard drive in case they disappear from the albums, like most of mine did :-((