[UPGRADE - 16/09]

I'm afraid the new look isn't really suiting me, though it's better than the green effort we had temporarily yesterday. It seems less distinct somehow than what we had before. I have it in my mind somewhere that you might be able to choose alternatives but don't know if that is possible here. I can see something about skins at the foot of the page but it's all in Russian if you click on the link! If it's one size fits all I expect I will get used to it. My whinges notwithstanding, it was obviously a herculean effort to make it happen, so well done to Sal.

[UK Gold Neighbours]

I don't think they are the BBCs to sell or not, if I read Adam's earlier contribution correctly. The Beeb will have had a contract to show new episodes as they came up. That has now ended so whilst they presumably have physical ownership of the tapes, they don't have the right to show them any more or to sell them on to a third party. If another network wanted to get into negotiations with Freemantle to show older episodes there is nothing to prevent that apart from the financial considerations. Given that these have now been shown in two distinct runs in the UK, and noting Alan Dale's frequent comments over the years about the actors' contracts giving them very few rights to residuals, at least in the early years, you would have thought that the asking price wouldn't be so astronomical, but maybe I'm being too optimistic.

 

There was talk a few years ago of a satellite channel concentrating solely on old Aussie shows, but I guess never turned into a financial runner.

[Getting back to 'normal' after Pirate Fun!]

It took me ages to twig what was going on, and being a miserable old g*t I didn't really get into the spirit of it. I am slightly concerned that I now appear to be a wench - as far as I know, I haven't had a sex change