Viewing figures for 1999 show that BBC1 has taken a bigger hit on

"Viewing figures for 1999 show that BBC1 has taken a bigger hit on audience share than any other channel," said one.. It is one of the great adultery stories in literature, right up there with Madame Bovary, A Handful of Dust, Pinter's Betrayal and Joyce's Exiles. Published in 1951, The End of the Affair was an immediate success, earning for Graham Greene the kind of praise from his Olympian peers ("Singularly beautiful and moving" - Evelyn Waugh; "One of the most true and moving novels of my time in anybody's language" - William Faulkner) for which any author would cheerfully expire. A small licence fee would be introduced for digital viewers and the existing analogue levy of £101 a year would be increased slightly.But the commercial television industry has made clear it would write individually to viewers if the proposals go ahead and explain that any increase in their digital charges was the Government's decision. They have argued that any levy would halt the digital age, because it would inhibit the take-up of subscriptions.The BBC says well-funded digital channels are vital for the overall success of the digital project.But insiders at commercial companies said the corporation's existing digital channels did not live up to the BBC's claims and that they have small audiences and often show poor programmes.This week it emerged that the new director general, Greg Dyke, had ordered that the content on BBC Choice be improved, specifically by running more sports on the channel, which is covering the World Club Championship.Rivals say 2000 is likely to be particularly tough for the BBC, even if the Government approves increased funding. "I cannot see how it would be a good use for public funds to spend such large amounts when there is manifestly not by market failure at the moment."A spokesman for ONdigital added: "Such a deal would amount to a pay channel though the backdoor. Why should people who don't like sport have to pay for it?"The government source also confirmed that ministers were considering proposals for a two-tier BBC licence fee in an attempt to overcome the dispute.

The BBC put forward the idea of a free sports channel in its submission in response to the Davies report last month. It would need approval by Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.A BSkyB spokesman said sports rights were a highly competitive market and the BBC would have to spend a large part of its funding to secure coverage of big events. The panel recommended a £150-£200m increase in the BBC's funds until 2006. Ministers are considering the proposal. Kate Hoey, Minister for Sport, is understood to be attracted by the idea because she believes the BBC has lost far too many rights to cover sporting events to satellite television channels.A government source said a free sports channel would be "popular with people" and was being "seriously considered" by ministers.Plans to introduce a controversial £24 annual supplement fee for digital viewers were proposed by a panel headed by the economist Gavyn Davies. "I spoke to them last night and they were hoping all of them would be back today or tomorrow," he said.When they do get back they will be expected to reconstruct their damaged buildings and begin the task of cultivating their own food and keeping animals..

The BBC has offered to provide a free sports channel in return for government approval of a digital licence fee Ministers are considering the proposal. The BBC has offered to provide a free sports channel in return for government approval of a digital licence fee. This is an exercise in building a community."Mr Mills said he did not know exactly how many people had been stricken by the virus, but it was not restricted to the volunteers Members of the production team had also fallen ill. A group of castaways who agreed to rough it for the next year on an island in the Outer Hebrides has been moved to comfortable flats only weeks into their ordeal after being stricken by flu. A group of castaways who agreed to rough it for the next year on an island in the Outer Hebrides has been moved to comfortable flats only weeks into their ordeal after being stricken by flu. The virus has infected many of the 36 volunteers taking part in the BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary Castaway 2000, forcing producers to remove the worst affected, particularly children, from Taransay, west of Harris, to recover in centrally heated homes in a nearby town.The most serious victims are now living in Tarbert on Harris, after gales of more than 140mph on their treeless island destroyed a pig sty, blew the roof off a lavatory and the felt cover off a sleeping compartment.Yesterday the makers of the BBC documentary, whose first episode is screened on 18 January, defended the departures from the group."Over the Christmas and New Year period almost everybody in the group got the flu bug," said Jeremy Mills, the executive producer, who added that the outbreak of illness had been anticipated and had produced gripping television tapes."It was decided that for their safety at the start of the experiment, those who were worst off would be taken off the island As we have always said, this is not a survival exercise. For zookeepers in the elephant wing it means you are more likely to lose the contents of your pockets. But for an elephant, handedness is another way of getting the best out of what you're born with, a feature that may once have made all the difference between survival and premature death.Andrea Lord is a researcher in the zoology department at the University of Oxford.

Handedness, whether you are an elephant or a lizard, appears to confer added dexterity. Its fundamental value is highlighted by the fact that we share it with animals as primitive as reptiles. The ability to remain symmetrical in an asymmetric world is even subconsciously favoured by humans; during experiments using photos of the opposite sex, the most symmetrical subjects are always chosen as the most desirable.Without asymmetry, though, animals might be less capable of interacting with the environment. So what about other organs? Most people are right-legged, right-eyed and right-eared. Leggedness is revealed by which foot is used to kick a ball, or step out. Eyedness shows up when one eye must be selected to look through a telescope or take a photograph. And a preferred ear will be directed towards a quiet sound such as a softly ticking clock.All this lopsidedness in our apparently symmetrical animal kingdom could get a bit depressing when one considers that symmetry is universally regarded as highly appealing.

Handedness, therefore, seems to confer an advantage.Presumably, "trunkedness" and "tailedness" are similarly advantageous. Some people, of course, are ambidextrous, and can perform tasks equally well with both sides. These generalists are found in other species too, but seem to be less successful. This bias in measurement may mask the fact that our degree of handedness is not so different from that in apes - rather, the difference may lie in the greater amount of tool-use humans engage in.One of the puzzles about handedness is why should an animal be an expert with one side of their body instead of both? Evolutionary biologists would argue that energy is always at a premium in nature, and if an animal can perform a task by specialising with one side, it will effectively "undercut" more extravagant animals who use both sides. A study of wild chimpanzees fishing for termites showed that chimps who probed termite mounds with a preferred hand gathered more food than those who changed hands. The energy for the neural and muscular development required for mastery of highly dextrous tasks is significant - imagine having to learn how to write with both hands.