Phone sex hotlines seem so quaint these days

Such is the case with the internet - so much so that, if you took away all the porn, the internet would likely be half-empty.

But back before the internet, people had to find other ways to be naughty.

One of those was phone sex hotlines.

They jumped on the back of the creation of the 1-800 number prefix, which was so hot during the 1990s that there were dedicated phone numbers you could call to get a weather report or sports results or find out how bad the traffic in your area is.

Or to have someone talk dirty to you.

For a fee, of course; their main aim was to keep you on the phone for as long as possible because they had your credit card details and you were being charged by the minute.

They were a big deal at the time - and got some people quite upset.

The US Congress was so concerned about their proliferation it passed legislation to ban them.

That ended up in the Supreme Court, where it was ruled the ban was a violation of free speech.

But looking back on the phone sex phenomenon, it all seems so very quaint these days.

This two-part special could have easily been called "Almost all of The Russell Gilbert Show".

This is the second of two one-hour specials that look at the best bits of Gilbert's show - which was a half-hour effort that ran for just seven episodes in 1998.

Doing the maths, it means we have two hours of highlights of a series that only ran for three-and-a-half hours in total.

It might seem odd to create these special episodes for a show that was not very popular when it aired in the late 1990s.

The passage of time hasn't helped the comedy either; the focal gags in some of the sketches aren't strong enough to even warrant being a sketch.

Others are so predictable, I found myself beating the cast to the punchline.

In the end, the motivation behind the specials isn't to highlight Gilbert's exceptional work. It's more a show of support from his friends at Hey, Hey It's Saturday following serious trauma in Gilbert's private life.

That's surely a noble gesture, but making two one-hour shows only calls attention to how thin the source material is.

You know one way to make sure you don't enjoy your retirement?

Decide to build a new house, doing much of the work yourself, while not having a regular income to pay for budget overruns.

But that's just what John and Julia decided to do.

Architect John had been dreaming for 30 years about building his own home, but with several false starts.

This time the Grand Designs team were on-hand to film it all - and it was a very stressful experience for someone who was meant to be putting their feet up and relaxing.

Needless to say, it doesn't end well.