British satellite broadcaster Sky is ready to welcome Australian friends to the UK with the introduction of an upside-down remote control.

Ahh, I’ve never grown tired of the notion that everyone who lives in Australia stands on their head because it’s on the other side of the world from Britain (not exactly, of course).

It’s all in celebration of The Ashes series which starts next month. Cricket is a sport that both Brits and Aussies understand but the former seldom does particularly well at.

Anyway, back to the remote control unit itself. You’ll notice that Sky hasn’t gone to the effort of rotating the entire design through 180 degrees, or even flipping every button, because some items like the central “play/pause” button have obviously not been fully rotated because of their odd shape.

I’m sure Sky could’ve gone much further with this – maybe sending a new version of the EPG to the set-top box without the user’s permission so that all the programme listings are upside-down as well. Or transmitting the programmes upside-down or played backwards. Yep, I think that’d be really good for business.

There’s no mention of how you can get your hands on one of these funky new RCUs. I bet with a Stanley knife and some glue you could easily make your own version (albeit one that doesn’t work when you reassemble it).

I wonder if the Australian Broadcasting Corporation will consider doing the same.

For those that haven’t quite worked it out, below is what the original Sky+HD remote looks like.

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