In the past few years, many successful UK TV shows have been adapted for US audiences - Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, The Weakest Link, Changing Rooms (which became Trading Spaces here), Men Behaving Badly, Pop Idol (aka American Idol) and The Office (still in pre-production here) to name but a few. Now it seems the trend is to be at least partially reversed with the imminent arrival of a UK version of The Apprentice starring Alan Sugar (a man once famously characterized on BBC Radio Four as a "local boy made bad" who thought "erudite" was a kind of glue) of Amstrad fame (or is that infamy?).

Anyway, what really caught my eye was this snippet at the end of the article:

Sir Richard is due to publicise the programme in New York on 

Thursday by jumping off the top floor of the Virgin Megastore 

wearing a jet pack.

Am I the only one who can see the following news flash come Friday morning?

Media tycoon Sir Richard Branson was killed today in a horrifying 

130-foot plunge from the top of the Virgin Megastore in New York, 

apparently as the result of the failure of a homebuilt jet-pack.  

Sir Richard leapt from the parapet high above Union Square with 

the words "Look at me, I'm flyi..." when his maiden voyage was 

cut short by equipment failure.  At this point, he departed from 

his script and ad-libbed "Aaaaaaaaaaaiiieeeee!" as he hurtled 

toward the ground.  His crumpled body was burned beyond recognition 

when the fuel tank on his improvised jet pack ruptured on impact 

with the sidewalk, resulting in a 30-foot fireball that instantly 

turned the scene into an impromptu funeral pyre.

Sir Richard was 53.