OK, finally got through to BT on the 'phone. There's an issue with their main email server (or servers?) and they are working to fix it ASAP. Worst case might that not be until tomorrow morning, but hopefully much sooner. They advise waiting for a couple of hours before trying to log in again. Apparently too many failed email logins can cause you to be locked out altogether, just to add to the stress! They appreciate the difficulties we all have as a result of this issue and the person I spoke to was very apologetic - obviously it's not the call centre staff's fault so I was calm and polite, although I'm very unhappy and made that clear.
PHEW!
Oh, is it back? Will now ignore the advice not to try for 2 hours ...
Everything is back to normal, so whatever the problem was BT have fixed it.
Webmail and Outlook mail literally just came back online thankfully. I have someone stuck in Spain urgently waiting on amended flight info, but sorted now
... and I still can't get in from my PC but it is working on my phone, so that's a result.
Update - now back on my PC too. Phew!!
Is BT's email platform down again???
Mine's just come back, after about an hour
It is still not fully up, but emails do come through in bursts. My machine still shows lots of server errors at BT's end, so grab what you can - while you can
Well, seems to be working again but incredibly slowly!