Betty Utility

Sorry for another smug middle aged #topical post, but ...

@calon_haf The last time I visited Dudley Zoo was in the 1980s and I'll still occasionally think about an elephant that was loosely chained up, obviously very troubled and constantly swaying from side to side. Horrible.

@BettyUtility Last time I visited the attached zoo (midwinter ca. 2000), we all left feeling that someone should take inspo from the storming of the Bastille & liberate the animals. What a dispiriting day. 😥

It's also Bastille Day. You may not think there would be a Black Country connection, but the similarities between the storming of the Bastille and Dudley Castle on an overcast Tuesday in November are TERRIFYING.

Sacha Baron Cohen is ten years older than Richard Madeley was when he appeared as Ali G on This Morning "💭"

@BRYN_BORANGA It's a Desperate Dan pie, signature dish of Mad O'Rourke's Pie Factory (Tipton).

@BettyUtility do you eat Jar Jar heads over there

Happy Black Country Day!

@profdwh A couple of people have pointed out that the adverts were shown in Yorkshire although Davenports beer was difficult to find. Although ITV was banned we generally watched BBC light entertainment. I suppose my parents had their reasons 🤷‍♀️

@BettyUtility I don't know that either. But certainly in Nottingham we saw it, on ATV. (And by the way, in our house too--that of my maternal grandparents--'commercial' TV was viewed with some suspicion, by comparison with Auntie BBC. 🧐)

Not sure if this advert was shown outside the West Midlands. It must have been on all the time during Star Soccer because everything else on ITV was banned in our house at that point. youtu.be/TsGR-ZIpRW4?si…

They were playing Do You Really Want To Hurt Me down the Cancer Research and now I know why 😔

@HUChrisLL I think there was a lot of crossover with regional programmes. I didn't notice because I wasn't allowed to watch most of it (as far as my mum was concerned if you saw ITV as a kid a life of degeneracy would follow and you'd end up in jail ☺️).

@BettyUtility Although Davenports wasn't easy to get in East Yorkshire I remember this advert well. In the mid to late 60s we got lots of ATV programmes during the weekend.

@MrRoyC Yeah, I don't think "turn a snack into a feast" would get past the Advertising Standards Authority in 2026.

@BettyUtility Was on in West Yorkshire. Early days of jingles. They ran out of ideas by the 3nd stanza. Also, I doubt the claim that it would ‘turn a snack into a feast’ was strictly accurate. My dad wouldn’t have it in the house.

@profdwh Wasn't sure of the "reach" that adverts had in the days of regional TV. I don't think it was shown in the south but I could be mistaken.

@BettyUtility We saw it in the *East* Midlands... 🍺

Missing from the video is the bloke who wouldn't join in with the rowing on principle. He is ~sailing~ instead.

@iBrowsie Oooh, I love an orange red colour pop lip. Lisa Eldridge's Velvet Morning?

All tweet ups look like this:

49 years ago The Saints - This Perfect Day [totp 14th July 1977] #punk #punks #punkrock #oldschoolpunk #punklegends #thesaints #punkrockhistory

@DoomSausages Very remiss of me. I'm sure Sam Matterface wouldn't have made that mistake if he'd done a spoof of the "Your boys took a hell of a beating" speech.

@BettyUtility Nice, perhaps would have added 'The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund' too.

Henrik Ibsen! Anni-Frid Lyngstad! Edvard Munch! Liv Ullman! Neutrogena hand cream! Neutrogena hand cream - can you hear me? Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!

@CookinAsia I'm not really a connoisseur and didn't find out about the Smethwick brewery until later but the advert seemed to be on TV all of the time. Presumably during or after football because that's all we ever watched on ITV!

@BettyUtility Davenport's best bitter was one of my all-time favourite beers. They also used to have a wonderful selection of canalside pubs because the beerr was transported by barge from the brewery in Birmingham.

Hydration break

@bureboy The thought of surly thirteen year old boys wearing perm rods is quite funny to me though.

@BettyUtility Fookin perms though

Went out this afternoon and there was a group of around forty teenage boys on bicycles gathered together, with more further up the road. The Tour de France sponsored by Clearasil and Redken Soft Perm.

Hydration break