Gawd bless Aunty Beeb; she may not be able to keep BBC 2 running to anything resembling its schedule, nor manage to maintain the continuity of pre-watershed Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but at least she's prepared to listen to license payers moaning about it.

Anecdotally nestling deep in the bowels of the Beeb, the brave souls of the Duty Office man the 'phones round the clock, logging anything and everything callers have to say about the corporation's service.

A classic example: In an effort to promote a failing sit-com, the BBC unintentionally reconfigured viewers' receiving equipment without their consent. Following a deluge of calls to the Duty Office from affected viewers, the BBC publicly apologised, and the experiment was never repeated.

And yet, in spite of the invaluable service the Duty Office provides, the BBC appear almost ashamed of its existence, practically posting a "Beware Of The Leopard" sign in place of directions. Although the telephone number is listed a mere two clicks from the front page, there is no mention of the "Duty Office" on the site other than this article!

In fact, this researcher actually discovered the telephone number on Channel 4's "Have Your Say" page - the top search engine result for BBC "Duty Office".

So here's the number: 03700 100 222