Hi Gav,

I've done a lot of PIC stuff, used (built) various pic-programmers (which all seem to cover a large range of chips).
Good PICs to start with (covered in most pic books) are 16F84 (18pin,13 i/o bits) and the 16F877 (40pin, 31 i/o bits).

I use picbasic pro compiler (paid) but you can download the free version with some limitations that wont affect you as a newbie.
The programming interface itself (which communicates with picbasic pro) is 'code designer lite' (free).

On another note, i also play a bit with 'picaxe' which is simply a PIC chip with built-in code to allow you to connect directly to the chip and program it via the serial port while it's still in your project (no more pulling chips in/out).

MM.