are general and have been successfully applied to the high yielding preparation of other aldol adducts such as 2b and 2c. The two step transformation of (E,E) 2a into the asymmetric (Z,Z)-2-(4-cyanobenzylidene)-7-(4-iodobenzylidene)cycloheptan-1-one 5 has been optimized. The radiochemical yield for the radiolabelling of 5 with K[11CN] followed by palladium catalysis to give the labelled bisnitrile 7 was