I recently picked up a copy of a publicity still for Who Pays the Ferryman? on e-Bay.

It was the shot we have all seen a hundred times before of Betty Arvaniti leaning on Jack Hedley's shoulder and gazing adoringly at him while he stares straight ahead. It was of interest really only to get the official BBC caption details stamped on the reverse. (How sad am I?)

No you aren't wrong, Michael Bird did not write the 1969 London Weekend Television drama series The Goldrobbers, but don't worry, nor have I lost the plot! At Christmas Santa gave me the series on DVD and having watched it again I have to say it was a damn good piece of television drama. The structure - a series of tight 'one off' dramas woven together into a wider plot - was not unlike Bird's series The Lotus Eaters.

There is (inevitably) a slight Michael Bird connection: albeit a tenuous one. When Ian Hendry was offered the part of Erik Shepherd in The Lotus Eaters Andrew Osborn, Head of Drama at the BBC, suggested Wanda Ventham for the part of his wife "Ann". Ventham had played opposite Hendry in an episode of The Goldrobbers and they all agreed the chemistry between the two actors was good. The episode, titled "The Oddly Honest Man" was scripted by David Weir and, interestingly, Weir was the only writer other than Bird to write for both series of The Lotus Eaters.

Even without this link, The Gold Robbers is worth a look. I have always liked the way Michael Bird used The Lotus Eaters to give us a series of mini-dramas and The Goldrobbers does exactly the same. Each episode is a little gem. If you have a spare £40 then you can order it direct from Network DVD (you won't regret it) or drop me an e-mail.

Over the years I have managed to pick up several of the original YTV publicity pictures for The Winning Streak series on e-Bay. A relatively unknown series, twenty five years after it was screened, and they continue to pop up.

The latest acquisition is one of Dinah Sheridan.

Part of the fun of managing the website is never knowing who will drop by next. I received an e-mail from Australia recently from a lady who turns out to be a relative of Michael Bird's. She told me that Bird and her father shared the same mother. "Her name was Madge Champion and she was first married to Patrick O’Neil Goulding (who was my grandfather)."

The lady from Australia was asking if I could let her have copies of any photographs, since she had never met Bird. I was pleased to go one better and sent her the The Outsider DVD with the extra feature - a recording of a drama class at Stefan Gryff's drama school in which students read extracts from Bird's script and get feedback from a panel consisting of Michael Bird, Stefan Gryff and Vere Lorrimer.

Douglas Camfield was one of the three directors of the first series of The Lotus Eaters. Interestingly it turns out that website visitor Faith Honeysett was a friend of his and she kindly sent me a copy of a piece she she wrote for their church magazine after he died. I have uploaded it to the 'Crew' page in The Lotus Eaters section of the website.

It turns out to be a fascinating church. Faith tells me she was talking to a woman there recently about The Lotus Eaters and the woman told her that "she knew Michael J. Bird very well, and was even out in Crete with him at one time and what a lovely man he was." Amazing!