I e-mailed Mike Law at BCD to ask him about the COOBE. He said that he “had a hand in the COOBE but final design and manufacture was undertaken by a Telecoms company as Alice went into receivership during the development of this product.” He doesn’t have any info about it and didn’t test any of them either.
The new Alice started as Broadcast Designs by Andrew Gemmell-Smith bought the name after the initial Alice went bust so aren’t anything to do with it either. Mike doesn’t know who to ask about it either, which he says is unusual for him. 
The only direct technical reference about it I’ve found on the interweb is from
EP110011 EP11/11
Commentator o. B. equipment. The COOBE is a portable, 3 Mic & 1 replay input device for radio commentary at OB sites. It uses a Music & Control line as a link to the studio. Power requirements PP9 + 2 x PP3 Batteries. Equipment superseded: EP11/1. SCPD 1986.
http://www.bbceng.info/Designs/RDCE/part_I/101to200.htmhttp://www.bbceng.info/Designs/RDCE/part_I/101to200.htm
So the trail has gone cold for the moment. I’ll see if I can have a detailed snoop around my units at some point soon to see if I can find any further leads. If anyone else finds out anything could they post it here? Thanks!