Wenvoe initially had a short lived hybrid HTV Cymru Wales UHF service which pushed the B&W Welsh language programmes out of prime time in favour of colour network programmes.

About thirty years ago I was talking with an EdF development director who with only a slight smile said that Gravelines Nuclear Power Station comprised of six reactors: four for France & two for England.

Although the coverage of the coast is shown between Minehead & Ilfracombe. Probably because there was no alternative at the time.

Desmond Morris in 1969

Desmond Morris, producer/presenter of Granada's Zoo Time, Thames' The Human Race and the BBC's The Human Animal, has died at 98.

Another of his fill-in jobs between Rediffusion & YTV was presenting Roundabout on Radio 2 for a week in August, his first work for the BBC in about 12 years.

The commercial sector has of course never thought of piecing together a (near) national FM station by buying up numerous local stations.

They are thinking primarily of the sport, which admittedly is a significant part of the really local content as opposed to the quasi regional. Oddly it might have worked to an extent with the original Radio 5. Or actually local radio 40 years ago which had a lot more speech (phone ins etc).

They adapted the same story twice as they The Plymouth Express early in the series but this is the short story expanded into the novel The Mystery of the Blue Train which they did late in the series. Either the personnel had changed, this duplication was ignored, or they were sufficiently different.

Or Charlie Chesty-cough.

Tab Ray and Les Drawsome.

Bonus points for the one who can smoke the most cigarettes in half an hour.

My dad would often refer to "Cowboys and Indians" being touted as the youth violence trigger when he was a teenager.

Another oddity are those early photos where the clock background appears grey rather than black.

And the main tax of concern in 1752 was on windows.

Targeted Facebook ads.

EU wants to kill our cuppa.

Yes, here's an early ad on those lines.

There are nearly 400 of them all over the city. www.storyofleicester.info/media/3064/h...

I reduced using one forum greatly because it allowed the originator of a thread to delete the whole thing. Too much time I wasted on replies that disappeared almost as soon as I had written them.

And people still say it is impossible...

Back then many small garages only served people they recognised as their regular customers from before the shortages. Few motorists have that kind of relationship with a petrol station these days.

I hope there is more attention put on the characters' accents this time around as in the 1980s version only one actor got anywhere near close. Hartlepool is apparently masquerading for Leicester though.

Importing success A long tradition of bringing the best international drama to British viewers began on the BBC 70 years ago. Writer and broadcaster Paul Hayes explores one of the first major drama

I've written a piece for the History of the BBC website, to tie-in with my new BBC Sounds documentary about Flight into Danger.

I also *think* that international and non-signed-in UK listeners *should* be able to listen to the version of the doc embedded here - fingers crossed!

I've said the same thing in the past about the revivals of University Challenge & Ask the Family, which on the face of it are broadly comparable concepts. In some other world it is Dick & Dom's University Challenge that is just a few faded memories.

Four miles from me there is a place where the main business is tyres but they have a few pumps available 24 hours which take card payments (think you can pay in the shop in office hours). A surprisingly modern operation in the middle of a village. Normally keenly priced but off my usual routes.

I remember in 1974 the small petrol station my dad used gave all the regulars a sticker for the windscreen. For at least 3 months they only served people with one whatever stocks they had at the time. Those kinds of places are long gone in urban areas.

There aren't many people around who remember what real supply shortages of petrol were like, rather than ones induced by increased buying or strikes.

Mary Field worked as advisor on Children's programmes for both ABC & ATV. This is I suppose another tip to Alpha although a weak one.

Quite. ATV didn't make much use of the clock from the mid 1970s, possibly for this reason. Mainly at closedown or before the News at Ten.

The ATV mechanical flip clock including seconds certainly had reliability issues. No wonder they looked for an electronic replacement.

I remember a long time ago being given just a banana for an AA breakfast.