A couple of years ago I was in the kitchen of a language school where I worked. My boss was in there with a man in his late thirties, whom I assumed was a colleague, whom I had not met before.

Stranger: RTL II are working on the schedules for autumn. There is some really good stuff coming up.

alanabit: It must be really hard work to keep it all down to the necessary standard.

Stranger: (angry and sarcastic) Oh. That puts a whole different complexion on it!

It turned out that the stranger was the Programme Director of RTL II and an important customer... My boss did not fire me on the spot, so I guess I was lucky. In fact he was quite decent about it and later agreed that he had no problem with the substance of what I had said. (I think he did ask me to work on my timing of such remarks in the future...)

From what I am reading on this thread, I can assume that it would give a lot of Mudcatters pleasure to have the opportunity to meet Programme Directors!