TV with ad attraction

THERE’S an old saying in the advertising industry: “We’ll entertain you for 25 seconds if you take note of our products for five seconds.” And given the budgets and talent attached to many ads, it’s little wonder the medium has attracted some of film land’s greatest writers, directors and stars.

But Mark Dolan, host of The Mad Bad Ad Show, isn’t about to wax lyrical about the halcyon days of Ridley Scott’s Hovis ads, or those Joan Collins Cinzano commercials.

Instead, he sheds light on the most unusual and funniest adverts about toys from the UK and abroad.

The team captains also get the chance to shoot their own commercials, with the studio audience voting for the best. Taking part are Micky Flanagan, Mark Watson, Miles Jupp and a man who had something of a showbiz epiphany in 1990 – Sean Lock.

During a bleak February, at a time when Frank Bruno was plugging HP Sauce and Holby veteran Clive Mantle was dressed up as a Frankenstein for an electricity ad, Lock was a builder working on the Isle of Dogs. “In that time I had my first paying gig as a comedian above a pub in Stoke Newington,” he recalls.

His act went down like a lead balloon, but it scarcely mattered as a proverbial light bulb had lit up over his head as he picked up his wage. “I was paid on the stairs and I remember thinking, ‘£15 for 20 minutes being hated in a warm pub. I thought I’ve just done eight hours laying concrete floors for £30. I thought: ‘Hang on a sec... if I can get people not hating me and get the money up to £25 to £30’.”

And from that simple equation, a comedy star was born. During that era, plenty of alternative comics delighted in having a go at Margaret Thatcher, but Lock believes the Iron Lady was one of the reasons he managed to launch his career.

“I have to thank Margaret Thatcher because the Tories at the time had the Enterprise Allowance Scheme,” he explains.

“So you signed up for it – you got your housing benefit, your rent paid, and you got £40 a week for a year, and any money you earned didn’t affect that.”

He looks back on those days with fondness.

“I had a brilliant time,” he enthuses.

“I was very lucky to get into it then and meet all these people, and there was the social life as well – meeting funny, interesting lively people. It made London a brilliant place to be for me.”

HAPPY tenth birthday BBC4 – and to celebrate let’s dance to Abba, the Village People and the Bee Gees as we conjure up The Joy Of Disco.

This documentary celebrates disco as a genre of music that actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979, this musical genre created the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, soundtracked gay liberation and brought female desire to the forefront in the age of feminism.

It also had a huge impact on Hollywood, providing the soundtrack to many a box-office hit. Don’t take my word for it.

Nile Rogers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager are on hand to pass on their thoughts on the music we call disco.

MANY of us love to unwind with a good book. Losing ourselves in a story and identifying with a particular character can be an eye-opening, moving or purely enjoyable experience.

That’s perhaps why the first run of the My Life In Books series was such a success.

The last edition of the week sees Anne Robinson joined by poet Pam Ayres and actor Don Warrington. Ayres first came to fame thanks to her appearance on talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1975 and, since then, has published six books of poetry and performed around the country.

Don Warrington, meanwhile, became a household name thanks to his role as Philip in ITV sitcom Rising Damp.