91Èȱ¬

I can reveal that the centuries old Zurbaran paintings we featured back in January are not going to be sold off after all.

It's all thanks to a generous donation of £15m by a Teesside born philanthropist, Jonathan Ruffer.

. He was born in Stokesley and has variously been a stockbroker, barrister and .

He has created a new charitable trust which means the pictures of Jacob and his Sons, which have hung on the walls of a specially designed gallery at , for 250 years, won't now end up at auction. The Church of England meanwhile still gets the money it wants to spend on grass roots ministry.

But there could be even better news on the way. The say talks are underway to secure more funding to allow the public greater access to the castle and grounds, which have been the official residence of the Bishops of Durham for the last 800 years. The ambition is to make it a leading arts and heritage centre for the North East.

It seems both those who campaigned for the paintings to remain in and those who saw the need to raise money for practical day-to-day work of the Church have all had their prayers answered.

You can read what my 91Èȱ¬ colleague Richard Moss has to say about this on his blog

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To misquote : "It's all relative".

This coming weekend many of us will once again face that conundrum: "so do the clocks go forwards or backwards?"

It usually takes a few moments to figure out that - yes, we do in fact lose 60 minutes beauty sleep.

Only insomniacs will cheer. The rest of us will moan about somehow being robbed of something precious. But let's get this into perspective.

I have been transfixed by Professor Brian Cox's brilliant series Wonders of the Universe.

In it he explains how out in space, time can be warped.

It has brought back memories of my days at Radio Newcastle when I interviewed an astro-physicist who manged to explain in plain English that in theory, at least, time travel is possible.

H. G. Wells dreamed up back in 1895 when the idea of being able to visit the past or future was pure fiction.

It remains only in the gift of Dr Who and the Time Lords at present, but the theory can be demonstrated.

Two synchronised atomic clocks will display precisely the same time here on earth, but send one into orbit and the two clocks will drift apart. .

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On a day-to-day basis astronauts on the whizz round the globe so fast they witness 16 sunsets and sunrises for every one we see. There's a fascinating video on how they set their watches on a special 91Èȱ¬ webpage all about time.

Compared to the universal picture, an hour lost is neither here nor there.

So bringing it all back down to earth, what will I miss this weekend? Sixty extra minutes of reading the Sunday papers, perhaps? A nice long soak in the bath? I can live with that.

Best of all my cats don't know what's coming. Instead of them stirring at the crack of dawn to harass me into getting up to feed them, this time round I get a head start and will throw them out of their little beds for a change.

You see - it's not all bad.

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When I am out filming and looking down the lens I try and imagine a single viewer at the other end.

It's an old broadcasting trick which helps you feel more at ease by forgetting there is a team of people behind the camera. If you actually pictured the umpteen thousands of people who'll be watching you'd freeze with terror!

So it's great, if a little unexpected, when someone sends me a picture of a real viewer.

Only this one appears to be furry and strangely mesmerised when I pop up on the screen.

I am wondering if it's a hangover from the time I turned my own cat into a hypnotherapist. Perhaps unknown to me George put out a subliminal message to all other cats that they must watch Inside Out whenever it's on?

I always keep a keen eye on our viewing figures, but no-one can tell me if feline fans are counted

I love to hear from our human viewers too.

Gabrielle saw our film a couple of weeks back on the . I thought there can't be many of them around, but Gabrielle's dad James is also such a craftsman and works in his back garden in County Durham. It's small world!

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We got a fantastic surprise on Saturday, 12 March 2011, when the Inside Out team picked up two awards at the regional dinner at .

It's the big bash of the year for TV and media types in the North East & The Borders and it's great fun, but it was topped by my picking up the award for "Best Presenter".

I was up against some excellent and very talented competition from ITV and and of course colleagues here at the Beeb, so you can imagine just how thrilled I was to have emerged as the one whose name came out of the envelope on the night.

We don't get to give acceptance speeches - but it goes without saying that without the whole Inside Out team I wouldn't even have been in with a chance.

So a huge thanks to Jacqui, Dan, Dave, Ed, Maggie, Susan, Andrew, Andy, Ben, Robin, Jasper, Chris, Jazz, Tony B, Lee, Matt, Jane B, Steve, Phil, Tom and Sue W. I would go on to mention my mother etc but you've heard it all before...

The night was sweeter still when one of our regular cameramen Steve Paton picked up the award for "Professional Excellence: Craft Vision" - again out of a really great field of entrants. They showed a clip of his wildlife photography for The One Show and it captivated the entire hall.

came extremely close to winning "Best Current Affairs Production" according to the judges, but we were pipped at the post and live to fight another year.

I'm also delighted to mention Look North's Katie Gornall who was singled out by the judges for special distinction in the award for "Best Newcomer". You'll recognise Katie from the sports reporting she does on the regional nightly news.

So needless to say we had a great night, and I confess it might have involved a few trips to the bar.

However, the next morning it's time to think about getting back to reality - and no bad thing too. Never mind enjoying yourself - everything that's going on in Japan puts it all into its proper perspective.

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Our top story in the latest episode (Monday, 7 March 2011 at 19:30 GMT on 91Èȱ¬1) is about the remarkable roman helmet that was unearthed in Cumbria.

I've written about that in my previous blog entry.

If you have a view on how it's ended up hidden away instead of on view in a museum please add your comments there.

Catch up

As it's the final show in our current series I get a chance to update you on some of the stories we've covered in the last year or so.

I do get asked:

"You know that programme you did about X, Y or Z? Well whatever happened to them?"

It shows people rally do connect with the people and stories we bring to you each week.

Care 91Èȱ¬s

The biggest ever response I had on this blog was after we featured some serious problems in some Southern Cross homes which in turn sparked a follow-up film.

We have now spoken to the who say that some Southern Cross homes are on their high risk list. The CQC says it keeps a close eye on all high risk homes.

Airport Scam

Our airport conman Andrew Gradon is still up to his old tricks.

Reports of his scamming unsuspecting travellers at Europe's airports have slowed a little but he's still at large.

The and Inside Out are tracking his movements, but there's still no sign of the police doing anything to catch him.

I do now have a passport photo of him - see right. It was taken from someone who wanted proof of his identity before giving him some money.

Needless to say Gradon never paid up.

If you're going abroad on holiday or business, keep your eyes peeled - and let me know if you see him.

Charity collectors

The say they have, for the moment, stopped using the Coulson Organisation to raise funds. It followed our exposé of the techniques and calibre of staff employed by the Tyneside based group.

Dogs

After receiving numerous complaints we investigated County Durham puppy sellers, Ivy Leaf Kennels. In a follow-up we tracked owner Kevin Knox to Wales where we saw him collect puppies by the roadside.

The county council says it has re-issued a pet shop and breeder's licence but warns it will carry out unannounced inspections of the kennels.

Whitley Bay con

Judging by your emails one of our most popular "busts" was when we caught up with Whitley Bay conman Bob Wilson.

Having ripped off the seaside community he scarpered back to his native America, but we tracked him down.

Since then our film has been seen in the States and it shocked previous business partners who had no idea he'd been wreaking havoc in Europe as well.

People power

One the uplifting side, we have seen nothing but smiles on the faces of those in Thornaby we filmed for our people power story.

They met with the and movers and shakers of the high interest lending industry and it's hoped it could lead to reform of the way people with no credit rating are able to borrow.

7/7 bombings

Lisa French faced a huge milestone in January.

Having survived the in which her bus was blown up at Tavistock Square, she was called to give evidence at the inquests of those who did not get out alive.

I first met her when she challenged me to do a parachute jump - she then conquered her fear and got back on to a London bus.

She's now involved with the and working with to give them the victim's perspective in the work they do.

Death in custody

2011 has also given some sense of closure to Carol Pounder.

Her son Adam committed suicide in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham and she has long campaigned to get to the truth of a rather brutal control technique called "nose distraction".

It was used on Adam the night he died and she always believed it had played a part in her son taking his own life.

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Life-changing surgery

We also featured two young people who've undergone medical treatment to improve their difficult situations.

Jen Hogarth became the youngest person to undergo gastric surgery to combat her obesity. Since the operation she has now lost seven stone.

And Mitchell Spencer who has cerebral palsy went to the States for an operation that has already changed his life.

He couldn't place his heels on the ground when walking nor could he put his own socks on.

Neither of those are now a problem and he's even using a running machine!

So now we're off air we can work on stories for our next series. If you have any suggestions for people or subjects the rest of us should know about please email me: chrisjackson@bbc.co.uk.

Thanks for watching and keep reading the blog!

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The cold eyes of the roman helmet have only stared out into the light of day for the briefest time over the past 2,000 years.

The remarkable artefact lay buried in a Cumbrian field until 2 metal detectorists from Peterlee picked up a signal and dug down into the earth.

Neither they nor the farmer at Crosby Garrett realised just what a lucrative discovery had been made.

The ceremonial helmet was dirty and in pieces, but because it was neither silver nor gold it did not officially constitute treasure.

The finders were therefore entitled to dispose of it as they saw fit.

In this case it was restored and went to auction and was snapped up by a private buyer for £2m.

Any hopes that it could be bought by were dashed as the price kept on rising at the auction house.

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Farmer Eric Robinson says his knees turned to jelly as the hammer finally came down.

His half share of the £2 million is buying homes for his daughters. The father and son metal detectorists have kept a low profile.

Chances are the helmet itself is now locked in a vault somewhere and so those steely eyes are probably once more kept in the dark.

The only hope any of us have of seeing it for ourselves is if the anonymous buyer has a philanthropic streak and loans it out to a museum. We are in his or her hands.

As we reveal in the next episode of Inside Out (Monday, 7 March 2011 at 19:30 GMT on 91Èȱ¬ 1) the government is considering ammendments to our so that such a find could never again be lost to a private collector and will instead be saved for the nation.

The roman who once wore it at military displays could never have known his helmet would witness a right old battle almost 2 millennia after he proudly paraded it to his fellow soldiers. He for one wanted it to be seen by all. What do you think?

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