Thought I'd try it. Just put my K-1 into LV ad TAV, I can get ISOs from 100-3200 (the limit I have set.) So can't see where you're coming from.

Surely he wouldn't have kept his website live if he didn't want the business still? Mind, I also thought he said he was working towards retirement. One can only ask him if need be!

Sorry, I missed that the first Pentax one was at f2.8. With those the Sigma looks to be better right through. I wonder how one of Pentax's macro lenses would compare?

Did you try any with the lenses stopped down for comparison? The Pentax Standard 50mm at 1.7 isn't ever going to look really sharp at full aperture used as a macro lens. At f2.8 it would match the Sigma and provide a truer comparison

A similar report here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/344171-pentax-...
No follow up as to the outcome though.
And another here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4224147

Great photos.
We have kittiwakes in Scarborough too.
Gulls here seem to upset the council here who have resorted to netting which is trapping kittiwakes as well as the intended herring gulls.
https://community.rspb.org.uk/getinvolved/b/seabirds/posts/a-tale-of-two-seabird...

There are leaf shutters on most vintage film cameras. They seem to go on and on!

Sounds like you'd be paying John Pye to act as a middleman just to post it on, taking their cut into the bargain. Why not get a quote from a UK independent repairer?
Alan Marlowe in Surrey is quite reputable http://www.cam-rep.co.uk/
as are PJ Cameras in Staffordshire, http://www.pjcrdirect.co.uk/
to mention just two. There are others.

I reckon the OP didn't consider that Countryfile is a UK TV programme, but people read PU from all around the world. Only those in the UK who also happen to watch the programme will appreciate the 'lines' referred to.
Maybe the BBC page about it will help:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/WRbW0F14zmXskNtY0sZZ91/the-countryfile...
Note it isn't 'Beast' but 'Beasts. I believe 'Beauty and the Beast' was a fairy tale where a prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.
If I was to enter the BBC comp I don't think I'd upload it here before hand. It might give others ideas!

I'm not sure what lens this is either. I've always thought the Hollywood lens was a 28mm based on the Zeiss design. But these images are reporting that the focal length has been manually entered as 200mm.