After looking over the comments and speaking to my brother-in-law (a photographer for a leading motor magazine), I’m probably going to go with a Nikon D70 and one of these.
It’s realistically the most viable option given my budget (I’ve had to raise it to around £210, inc. lens).

Does anyone see any major issues? Thanks for your help.

EDIT: Oh, and my brother-in-law also introduced me to London Camera Exchange (despite the name they actually have branches all over the country) – they sell really cheap second hand DSLR bodies. Plus all products are cleaned and checked for damage before being published on the website. I’ll be saving around £25 on the D70 over the cheapest one on ebay.

http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/