OK, I managed to open an account without too much difficulty as an Englishman with an English phone number. I just need to do the passport verification thing, which I will try tomorrow now as its 7pm here already.
The only odd thing was the address. Only numbers in the postcode fields and no spaces between the rest of the address. Will see what happens when I try and verify it tomorrow, though I'd be wary making a deposit as that address and my bank account address wouldn't match exactly...we will see :-)