IT WASN'T JUST ME

I went into the newsagent's shop the other Tuesday morning, as I usually do, in order to pick up the latest issue of the "Radio Times" and found myself having the following exchange, after having glanced across at the spot on the shelf which they are usually stacked in and thought that the old one was still there.

"Have you got the new Radio Times…?"

"I've put it out, mate…"

"But isn't that last week's edition…?"

"No, I put the new one out this morning…"

I went back and realised that this was indeed a brand new edition, although its similarities to the previous week's issue was, I felt, at least for the casual observer, close enough for this to be a very simple mistake to make.

Anyway, feel in like an idiot, I picked up a copy, parted with my £1.80 (!!!) and disappeared off into the dark morning, wondering whether I was just getting old.

Mind you, given the similarity of the colour palette, the similarity of one of the main photographs, and the near replication of the banner flash advertising the free book offer, I still don't believe that it was that foolish an error, even though, once you put them next to each other, they're really not all that similar at all.

But I do wonder how many other potential buyers have been put off this week by making the same elementary error… after all, as Sherlock himself once observed, we look but we don't observe, although, given the current fan base that Mr Cumberbatch has (Cue utterly gratuitous picture of his mum, back in the day, using the excuse of her uncredited cameo in the first episode of the new run to justify the inclusion), I don't suppose that sales would suffer, although making such a design choice does seem to be a minor blunder on the part of the designers.

Happily, when I got to work, m'colleague, who is a subscriber to the official organ of the BBC, was complaining that his copy had arrived in an envelope the previous day and he had begun a small rant about how they'd sent him last week's copy again by mistake before he had noticed the dates were in fact correct and it was indeed a brand spanking new edition that he clutched in his hands.

So it wasn't just me, then...