Possibly only for those of you in the U of K..

When I was a little kiddie, I used to have something called a whisper 2000 (I think that was the name of it, it definately featured the word whisper in the name)..Which was basically a sensitive microphone that you would leave just outside the back door and hopefully hear what the people in the garden were talking about.

Any ideas where I can buy a microphone from that will do something similar nowadays?

Doesnt have to be brilliant quality, just pretty sensitive.

I dont know that "spy on the neighbours" mic , but i noticed my own 50cent mic is pretty bad and insensitive, but when i hooked in on my new soundcard i suddenly got pretty good sound and a good secitivity (mic boost). So a good preamplifier/soundcard with a standard mic might be enough.

Take a standard small diaphragm condensor mic (almost anything should be fine) with a high sensitivity and low signal to noise ratio and mount it pointing into to a parabolic satellite dish!

So the type of mic I need is a condensor microphone?

What you had was a parabolic microphone, one of a couple of types of highly directional microphones. Shotgun microphones, I believe, have better fidelity. Since I like the name of the place, here's a place with three of them:

Spy Store Microphones

That Sony might be more what you're looking for - the cheap parabolic ones you could buy from the backs of magazines that you remember probably did not perform as well as it.

Likewise, you could froogle for "parabolic microphone" or "shotgun microphone" and you'll find the Bionic Ear. How could anyone resist something called "The Bionic Ear"?

Mark