Freelander 1 Immobilser Problem?

I've been playing with my 1999 1.8 Freelander today and after recharging the battery have been unable to get it to start...
The fob unlocks and locks the doors and the engine turns over on the key but isn't firing. I do get a strong whiff of petrol though!
When I lock the car I get a quick flash of the red light in the instrument cluster and then rapid flashing for around ten seconds before it goes back to the 'armed' regular flash.
I've done the key re-synch, the rear window stays up, the engine turns over but no sign of starting at all.
I've had a search, but can't find anything talking about this long rapid flash. What is it trying to tell me?

Should also probably say that the horn sounds if I try to lock with the bonnet or doors still open too, so it seems like alarm-wise at least everything's working.

It will sound the horn for 0.5 seconds if it senses a door or bonnet is open when you try to lock.
When alarm is switched on the fast flashing for 10 seconds is the time it's waiting for the air inside to settle, before it takes a measurement. It then flashes slower thereafter. The measurement is the air sensing for the volumetrics so it knows if a window has been broke'd by someone trying to break in.

So the alarm functions seem to be OK (never noticed the volumetric sensing before!) and the central locking is working fine.
Should the immobiliser allow the engine to turn over but stop it from firing - or does it kill the starter too?
Just trying to figure out if it's the immobiliser or something else...
Definite smell of petrol, so the fuel pump must be OK.

If you think it's the immobiliser then a code read will confirm why it's doing it.
I've had immobiliser problems due to switching it on/oft too many times and it would allow the engine to turn over but not start. On this occasion I was fault finding which is why I turned it on/oft so many times. Me hawkeye confirmed it was an immobiliser type issue and unlocking it, then disconnecting the battery earth connection, then waiting 10 seconds for the power to die (don't short the battery cables when disconnected), then putting the earth back, then press fob 5 times and put rear window up to the top. Started first time.
On another occasion I de-synchronised me immobiliser to the engine computer when messing about with adding another remote fob.
To be honest I'd be surprised if it was an immobiliser problem. Not sure if your engine will turn over but not start, like my v6 did with an immobiliser issue.

The immobiliser on these does have a start inhibit line, so if the immobiliser wasn't playing ball it wouldn't turn over.

BUT...

There's a chance the immobiliser and ECU have become desynched.

The immobiliser/alarm unit on the early cars works by:
1) Receive unlock command
2) Disarm Sensors
3) Send signal to central locking to unlock
4) Arm starter motor
5) Send four digit serial code to the engine ECU, which unlocks the ECU ready to start

Usually if step 5 fails the ECU *should* log a code, it used to do it on the rover T series as it knew something was wrong if the starter was turning but it hadn't got an authorised code from the immobiliser.

Right, had a play again today. I replaced the coil, rotor arm and distributor cap since all were looking a pretty grubby. No spark from coil to cap HT lead.
Reset the cut-off switch on the bulkhead. Still no spark. Tried again with the old coil, nothing.
Refitted the new coil, checked the low tension wiring, still no power going to the distributor.
So do I need Hawkeye or something similar to read any ECU fault codes and then resynch the ECU and immobiliser?

Hmm... A bit of research suggests it's the main dealer only to resynch the Ecu and immobiliser.
Is it worth calling out the RAC - guess they could at least read fault codes?

The engine computer should have a code if the immobiliser and engine computer are out of sync. This is a rare fault. It happened to me when trying to program fobs. Bad luck I guess.