WORDSMITH: Strange brew in the advertising world
IT'S a match made in er, well, Yorkshire actually.
Comedian John Shuttleworth and tea, Yorkshire Tea.
The new series of ads on our screens combine the bumbling South Yorkshire comic creation of Sheffield's Graham Fellows and a decent cup of tea.
The ads are hilarious in that gentle half-witted way of Shuttleworth but the out-takes are even better.
How many comedians - or anyone else for that matter - could get a laugh with a line about his 'trouser-leg differential' not being right when one of his trouser legs is hanging longer than the other as he sits to play the organ on-camera.
There are three ads - one set in John's garage which includes the voices of Ken Worthington and John's 'wife' Mary, one featuring John playing the organ on a giant Yorkshire teabags box.
The third, supposedly set in a London cafe to advertise Yorkshire Tea's special 'hard water' brew, is a little more difficult to swallow.
Out-takes on:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWMS6qV0mzI
Sad demise of a tormented soul
BILLIONS of mixed feelings around the world yesterday with the passing of Michael Jackson.
An undoubted genius as a singer, songwriter and dancer his confused, obsessive and shadowy private life made him a man difficult to like long before the end.
Few artists ever hit the heights that Jackson hit as a kid - and then actually improve as an adult.
Anyone old enough to remember the impact of a live Jackson Five with young Michael singing 'I Want You Back, and ABC will tell you what an unforgettable sensation that was.
There was a kid full of energy and a supreme confidence in his own ability, apparently happy and surrounded by his brothers, the dark side of his life as yet unknown.
Thriller is still the biggest selling album ever - more than 100 million copies - and will probably remain so.
But like many celebrities he was a vulnerable, tormented individual with a huge talent and a lost childhood.
From child star to even bigger adult star his life turned into a grotesque tableau of the excesses of wealth, indulgence and eccentricity.
Billions of fans around the world, unparalleled success, and a collection of brilliant music, but it couldn't ever be enough.
The secluded and secretive ranch, the Never Never Land private theme park, the allegations of child sex abuse - never proved but settled by huge out-of-court cash settlements.
The illness, drug addiction, weight-loss and plastic surgery that made him into a wraith-like parody of his own self-consciously constructed image tainted his memory for millions. The child abuse allegations destroyed it for millions more.
But as theatrical talents go it has to be acknowledged that he was up there with the all-time greats.
Paying to fund the lavish lifestyles
THERE seems to be no stopping the Daily Telegraph's expenses hunt.
With MPs trashed and sacked they have turned their gimlet gaze onto the BBC.
Director General Mark Thompson is berated for bringing his family back home from holiday - at a cost of 2,236 to deal with the Rusell Brand/Jonathan Ross crisis last year - at the Beeb's expense. Why?
Have a go at them for their outrageous salaries, poor performance and lack of insight into what people actually want to watch on TV but what was he supposed to do? Imagine if he had not come back. The front page pictures of he and his family sunning themselves in the Scilly Isles while the BBC burned.
All this is outrage over the use of public money is simply tinkering in the gold-embossed margins of privilege and wealth
We all pay in one way or another to fund the lavish lifestyles of many of our great and good.
And it is likely to remain the case because we actually like things the way they are.
Any political party advocating the break-up of the apparatus of privilege and wealth of the elite would be lost without trace at an election.
As they have in every election since 1945.
A public flogging in the papers is the worst they have to fear.
Buy The Star - Monday to Saturday - for local news, sport, features and ads. To subscribe CLICK HERE
READ MORE
Main news index
Your letters
Features
South Yorkshire's environmental news
Kids Zone
More business news
More Rotherham news
More Doncaster news
More Barnsley news
Latest sport
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
