The Mascot IV telemanipulator is the work-horse of the remote handling operations on the Joint European Torus (JET) nuclear fusion research facility (Culham, Oxfordshire, UK). The dextrous two arm servomanipulator has been used in two highly successful, fully remote shutdowns. The experience gained by using the manipulators extensively over a 6 year period revealed areas where significant improvements could be made to their effectiveness and maintainability. The original control system software was developed in the 1980's and was written in Z8000 assembler. The system utilised a total of 40 microprocessors and was clearly a limiting factor for the systems' maintainability and development.