BV7 - Why don't they bother with the screen?

Any idea why if you buy a red, gold, blue, or black one, the aluminium surround is colour matched, yet if you buy a dark grey one they don't bother and leave it silver?

If you buy a dark grey one then the aluminium is dark grey, not silver. Maybe in the wrong light it might look silver, but it is definitely dark grey.

I agree. Several years ago my wife and I ordered a BV7-40 in grey, with a grey Beolab 7-4. When the TV was delivered and the installers unpacked it, everybody thought it was silver. It did not match the grey Beolab 7-4 at all. Dealer ordered a second grey Beovision7-40 to replace it. A few weeks later they arrived with the second Beovision 7-40, unpacked it and it looked silver also. It was very disappointing that the grey looked silver and did not match the Beolab 7-4.  Because of the different colors we opted to change the speaker covers to blue and have a large amount of contrast that looked and was intentional as opposed to what appeared to be a missmatched speaker and tv.

Is there a way to tell from the serial number what colour you have?

Dealers can tell from the serial number. Serial number on our 7 indicated it was grey, but it looked more silver.

I have a silver bv7 with silver 7.1 and a grey bv7 with 7.1. I would say that they are totally different colours and people say that my grey one looks a lot better. It may still look slightly silver but side by side they look completely different. If someone tells me how to upload pics I will. Black also looks very nice. I now have my grey one in the conservatory where it looks a lot lighter in colour but still not silver.  Hope this helps.