I believe Olly was a contractor and was leaving Gamma immediately after the completion of the series - he gave me the address info@thegammaproject.com for future correspondance.
Managed to get hold of a copy and Rich is dead right - they really did use the wrong cut the first time around. Makes a whole lot more sense.
Chris B did have a blind spot for the fact that it was built for the US market - to him, #1458 was "unmodified" rather than "put back the way it should have been"!