TV's Don't Forget Your Toothbrush proves popular abroad: Bunhill

NO LONGER, you will be glad to hear, do foreign television audiences think of Britain purely as the land of Brideshead Revisited and Upstairs, Downstairs. The latest show to have caught the fancy of Our Foreign Chums is, wait for it, Don't Forget Your Toothbrush. The format, if not the show itself, has been sold the world over, and that includes Australia and even, possibly, the United States. Of course the translations are not always exact, though they are linguistically fascinating. Most are pretty straightforward, although the Danes are more admonitory (Husk Lige Tandeborsten O) means Just Remember The Toothbrush. The Swedes are reproachful - Glom Ante Tandborsten, Forget Not The Toothbrush; while, unsurprisingly, the Germans are stern: Pack die Zahnburste ein - jolly well pack your toothbrush.

And finally, the French do a literal translation: but because they think it's rather a good idea for a programme, they refuse to admit that it's a British idea.