The day after I left the country for 3 weeks Storm Katie hit (maybe lucky as it closed the airports). The storm pulled the cover off the car in the driveway although it was replaced by my son and neighbour after the storm. When I got back I noticed that the headlights were up and the battery completely flat (I have a CTEK on it but that cuts out below about 7 volts). Somehow the rain seemed to have got into the electrics (the footwells were full too) and lifted and switched on the headlights. I tried to drop the lights using the manual knobs, only to find that the nearside one did not have a knob! I put a good battery on, checked the connectors behind the lights, switched on the lights and they did the well known dance (not in synch) and stopped, then started again and synched themselves. All seemed OK but I decided to strip and clean the switches to make sure.
The telltales in the fog light and hazard switched always give trouble, normally needing much prodding and pulling of wires to get them working long enough for the MOT. Cleaning the switches did not cure this problem (they were not bad inside). I then pulled and checked the peanut bulbs, all OK, so I tried pulling out the contact wires which run along the side of the glass to make better contact with the brass strips in the connector block. This seems to have cured the problem and they now work every time, so if you have these problems the solution is simpler than rebuilding/replacing the switches.
Still have no idea how both lights raised and switched on with the light switch off though!
