I had heard that:

A. Land Rover Gasket is the best upgrade, but obviously they're 1.8's. I'm assuming they don't fit a 1.4, but does anyone make them to the same spec? There are loads of MLS Head Gaskets on eBay etc, but lots of bad reviews on the internet too.

B. Switching to steel dowels helps, but again, are there right and wrong ones to buy, where's best to buy from etc?

The car in question is a Metro GTi and it's going to get TB's and some abuse and I do beleive that prevention is better than cure.

I also have an MGF, which when I acquired that I was told it had an MLS gasket fitted as the headgasket had gone previously, but they didn't know much about it other than that and that has been spot on with no issues.