Germany's GEZ sent the bill to the last home address of algebra expert Adam Ries, who bought the property in 1525. "We received a letter saying 'To Mr Adam Ries' on it, with the request to pay his television and radio fees," said Annegret Muench, who now heads a club honouring the mathematician, which uses the house as its HQ.

Miss Muench returned the letter to the GEZ with a note explaining the request had come too late, as Ries had died in 1559. But she still received a reminder a few weeks later.This was not the first time the GEZ had sent a bill to those in the afterlife.

Last year, a school named after the poet Friedrich Schiller, who died in 1805, received a reminder asking him to declare all radios and televisions in his home and pay the corresponding fees.

I reckon he would pay if he could if only for Big Brother...

It's all bloody repeats!

The original was here