Sadly Johnny Pearson who composed the theme and incidental music for Maelstrom - including the haunting "Camellia Waltz" which he treated to sound like an old 78rpm record - has died at the age of 85. Pearson did a lot of work for the BBC and lead the Top of the Pops orchestra for fifteen years until late 1981.

Zoom in When You See The Tears (Pub: June 2011) is the autobiography of BBC film maker Fred Hamilton. In a long and distinguished career, Hamilton worked on many classic BBC productions including Doctor Who, straddling the tenure of both Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee, Z Cars, Out of the Unknown, Doomwatch, Colditz, Paul Temple, Target and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The book, published by Fantom Films, is a collaborative effort between Hamilton and Werner Schmitz. Regular visitors to the MJB website will know, Werner has given me a great deal of help over the years and assisted greatly with my biography of Michael Bird. Werner runs MEDIA Gems excellent Paul Temple Website.

Inevitably Hamilton's book has an MJB connection - Werner tells me: "the Paul Temple series is covered in detail on pp. 114-130 (with 19 behind-the-scenes images). Bird's episode "Night Train" is covered on pp. 114-5 (although there is no image for that particular episode)."

I have added the details as "Further reading" on the Bibliography page of the MJB webiste.

If there is anyone who has still not got a copy of the professional release of Who Pays the Ferryman? on DVD, website visitor Keith Plummer e-mailed to tell me that it is currently selling for the ridiculously cheap price of £6.98 on Play.com with free postage and packing!

The late Michael Sheard was one of the actors who responded positively to my approach when I was first setting up the website. He and Bird had become good friends and he sent me a nice testimonial. Sadly Sheard died in August 2005, aged 65, and I regretted not having explored further his involvement in both The Outsider and The Dark Side of the Sun when I had had the chance.

Sometimes the glaringly obvious sits under you nose without being seen and I am grateful to website visitor Keith Plummer for drawing my attention to the lengthy passages in Sheard's published memoir "Yes, Mr Bronson" devoted to his time on the two series. I managed to pick up a copy on e-Bay for a couple of pounds and found it a good, if somewhat eccentic, read.