[James2001]

There was an 0891 number for non-touchtone users at one point (presumably you got through to an operator who'd patch it in), but it had been shut down by then, so I'm not sure why that message still stayed. They still sometimes gave you the number (there were 2 different messages, seemed to vary which one you got) when you called up until the messages were replaced in mid-1999 (by Mitch Johnson of Live & Kicking fame, who did most of the voiceovers on the channel from mid 99 until the November revamp), but calling the number got you nowhere.

I seem to remember you'd often get through more often using the 0115 non-Diamond Cable/NTL number... though it was still free to call from an NTL phone line. The numbers still worked for a day or two after the switch to the Sky version as well. We actually broke a phone through the constant hanging up and redialling...

My family in Derby, on the ex-NYNEX Cable & Wireless (which also became NTL later in 1999) when they finally did get the Box in their package, didn't have the luxury of a free number, that was a premium rate one, even when it was still the locally ran channel. They did have Boxtext though, which the Diamond Cable/NTL version never did.

That first Bryan Adams video, being so white, really does show how bad the picture quality was, most of that video is washed out like an overexposed camera film.