In August 2007 I was approached by Kaye Jemmeson of the Teesdale Mercury who said had been asked to write a piece about Michael Bird's Yorkshire Television series The Outsider for their Dale Life magazine.

Kaye said "I basically decided to write the piece after our current editor told me about the programme and about your website - which has been a fantastic source of inspiration. Although I class myself as a retro TV buff I have to admit I've never heard of the programme and was intrigued. I also asked a lot of people I know in the area if they had heard of it and although some had a vague recollection they didn't realise there was a link to us here."

Kaye asked for my help and naturally I was happy to get involved. I was also able to make her a copy of my DVDs - which include the half hour documentary about the Teesdale Mercury which sparked off, in Michael Bird's mind, the idea for the series.

It was several months before the feature (seen here) finally saw the light of day, appearing eventually around Christmas, but when I finally saw it I had to admit Kaye had done the series proud. And she gave the website a decent plug at the end of the piece.

Since the Mercury is a broadsheet I had a devil of a job scanning it, but I think it reproduces well enough - click any quadrant for a larger, more readable, copy.

The article is also on the Teesdale Mercury website