This county is full of beauty

The BBC is filming a comedy series based in Sussex over at Cookham Deane in Berkshire.

And the astonishing reason is that executive producer Roderick Gilchrist says the Beeb couldn't find a genuine picture-postcard

village in Sussex

Mr Gilchrist, who purports to know the county, asks: "Have they all disappeared?"

The answer is obvious to anyone who's looked at Lindfield, dived into Ditchling or peeped at

Poynings.

Sussex has some of the loveliest villages in England - not just one or two, but scores of them.

When viewers switch on to BBC2 next month, they may enjoy the comedy in How Do You Want Me?

But, thanks to this bonehead at the Beeb, they'll have to put up with Berkshire beauty rather than the authentic Sussex loveliness.

Outfox the yobs

Most people don't do anything when vandals cover the outside of their lovely town homes and shops with graffiti.

But company director Dan Fox had other ideas when they struck on his building in Farm Road, Hove.

He's offering a reward for

information that will help catch the culprits, and he's received the full backing of the police.

A few well-publicised prosecutions should stop the wall-scrawlers from going on with their infantile and destructive doodling.

Cool clergy

The Bishop of Horsham's doing his best to get in touch with young people by showing he understands them.

As the youngest bishop in the Church of England, Lindsay Urwin listens to Boyzone and reads teenage magazines.

Sussex also has Dr Eric Kemp, the oldest and longest-serving bishop in the land.

And the day the Bishop of

Chichester says he listens to

Boyzone in his car or reads Shout regularly, you'll know the C of E has really become cool.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.