Mac4781@aol.com wrote: <And yet the use of "oh sod it" or "daft bugger" would give me pause.>

Agree about daft bugger (though that *could* be 'cause it was one of my mum's favourite terms :-)) it actually sounds too *cute* in Vila's voice. Doran, maybe - there is a distinct difference in the way Doran, another lower-grade man, talks, to how Vila does.

I tend to imagine Vila using less of this sort of thing anyway, and more of an idiosyncratic use of idiom (though I don't know that he did *this* a lot in the series either :-)). For instance, I had him in one (as yet unfinished or cannibalised) scribble describe their situation as 'between the devil and the deep blue frying pan', which is maybe wierd, but just seemed to work.

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