Your island

Have you ever sat down to watch your favourite TV drama and noticed that the number on the mobile phone on screen looks a bit familiar?

Well that’s because most mobile phone-numbers used in TV drama start with 07700 – which also happens to be the range used by Sure in Jersey.

The most recent and high profile use of the TV mobile number was in Doctor Who – The Stolen Earth – I won’t go into details in case you haven’t seen it yet.

But basically it heavily featured the Doctor’s mobile phone number (07700 900461). Unusually for TV drama it was shown several times in full on screen.

The Doctor is on 07700 900461

At first glance that looks like a Sure Jersey mobile number. In fact a friend asked if we could call the Doctor with our free minutes when I got into work.

The answer is no. For several reasons: 1) The number isn’t real, it doesn’t work (yes I tried it), 2) it isn’t actually a Sure mobile number, and 3) The Doctor is a bit tied up at the moment.

But the one that really matters is reason two – the number, and almost any number you’ll ever see in a TV drama or hear in a radio drama, is fake.

It’s part of a range of numbers reserved by OfCom (the media and telecommunications regulator) for ‘drama purposes’.

In fact if you ever see 07700 followed by a 9 you can be pretty certain it’s a fake number for drama purposes only.

In fact anything from 07700 900000 to 07700 900999 will not work if you try to call it – so if you’re ever out and are asked for  your number by someone you don’t want to give it to – you have 1000 to choose from and still have it look like a local number.