Oh, what a tangled web… BBC reveals its shady sites

YOU might expect a shady dating agency to be behind the websites www.desperate russianhousewives.co.uk and www. singlessos.co.uk – but they are actually run by the BBC.

The corporation has released a list of 154 of the internet domain names it operates, ranging from foreign language news to spoof tie-ins with TV programmes.

Some of the stranger web addresses registered by the BBC include www.coconutloving.com (which promotes offbeat comedy The Mighty Boosh), www.bestmurders.co.uk (set up for dark comedy Psychoville) and www.watchagrownmanrot.co.uk (for EastEnders).

EastEnders is also linked to www.desperaterussianhouse wives.co.uk, and www.singles sos.co.uk is part of an online game for Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.

The BBC released the details in response to a Freedom of Information request, but it declined to reveal a full list of its websites, saying:

"Disclosure of all domain names would, in effect, disclose our domain name strategy.

"In providing our strategy for names, we would face the increased possibility that individuals or organisations could potentially register domain names for our key brands and/or forthcoming programmes or services and try and profit by attempting to sell them back to the BBC at inflated prices.

"Furthermore, disclosure of the names and, in effect, our domain name strategy could provide an open opportunity to cyber squatters or domain redirection services to understand our strategy for registering names and could result in multiple registrations of key domain names which would then have to be recovered through litigation procedures."

A BBC spokesman added: "As a global broadcaster, the BBC owns a wide range of domain names. Some of the more unexpected ones on the list have been created as part of programme storylines.

"We have not got any plans to launch a desperate Russian housewives site."