The Electronic Telegraph 4 April 1995 CITY
Hoping the calls were from eager clients, they were perplexed to be bombarded with requests for free videos of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Evans, who reportedly negotiated a £1m package at the BBC, had given out a number strikingly similar to that of MAM's literature request service, instead of Radio One's competition hotline.
A spokesman explained: "Because Chris speaks quite quickly, people have been getting confused. He'll have to make a greater effort to talk slowly tomorrow." Return to top
BARNARD Marcus Auctions are seeking bidders for Holm Island and Hollyhock Island, three privately-owned acres emerging from the sludgy waters of the Thames near Staines.
The auctioneers gush on about the charm of the place, and assert that King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson used the then glorified bungalow known as "The Nest" in the early 1930s.
For some reason, the glowing description omits to mention the sedimentation tanks (sewage works, in English) which face the house on the river's southern bank. Return to top
SAVOY Group shareholders may be disappointed with the hotelier's latest annual report. It confirms that Giles Shephard, the former managing director replaced by Ramon Pajares, earned a £569,000 pay-off, but contains no recipes. Its thick binding is designed to resemble a menu, but there are none of the tips from the group's chefs which graced the 1993 report.
"We do something different every year," says a defensive spokeswoman. Stained copies of the report litter many a kitchen surface, she claims, as shareholders construct the perfect petit nage de rouget or tian d'agneau rti: "We have had a lot of compliments on last year's report. The recipes are very popular." Return to top
BIDDERS for the dubious privilege of operating the fifth terrestrial channel have seven days to get their offers in. Much has been made of the impact on the nation's video recorders, which may need retuning, but I understand there will be additional expenses.
"Any equipment capable of self-generating electro-magnetic signals for reception by a television set attached to it" may need retuning, the Independent Television Commission's blurb confirms.
That means about 15pc of all satellite dish owners, and anybody with a personal computer or Sega-style games system hooked up to their TV, can invite engineers to tramp through their living room. Return to top
DORSET-based communications software group 4-Sight is getting desperate in its search for new programmers. The company, which already employs 75 people in Britain, Holland and Iowa, has placed an advertisement in the Bournemouth Echo offering £500 to anybody who gives them information leading to the successful recruitment of up to six new boffins.
The policy is not quite going to plan, however. "We've just had lots of calls from mothers who think their sons are handy with computers," complains Jan Banham, head of personnel. "But we require rather higher standards than that." Return to top
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