PJO wrote:
a 'Universal' one 20 quid from local shop

A smart answer but sadly also a crap answer.

£20 worth of universal remote will not work with most of what I've got
because they're only progranned with big standard studd like Philips,
Panasonic, etc. Once you go upmarket they will not work.
For what I want I'll need something programmable.

Any decent universal will allow you to program it from it from the existing
remotes using the 'nose to nose' method