The NTSC to PAL Convertor is a device obtainable from Maplins stores. It costs c. £60 and is the best investment anyone can make as you can avoid this wretched patching for PAL. NTSC backups are played through the convertor; PAL backups are played with the convertor removed (otherwise they come out greyscale).

You will beed a different AV cable or the little adaptor that changes SCART to AV (the yellow/white/red jacks).

Thanks to Spooky for letting me in on this post!