Them"s The Breaks

It’s Episode 8 and it’s our very first listener request!Many thanks to Andrew Pinnell for suggesting this one and finally letting us have a go at Martin’s favourite year, 1989.As it transpires, Martin may actually have watched this very ad break very near the time – as a precursor to some colossal disappointment.The ad break itself, we’re pleased to say, delivers.Lloyds does our job for us in pricking the pomposity of the Patrician Male, and shows us the 90s is in the post (modern).Lunn Poly

It’s Episode 7 and it’s our Back to School special!Well, not quite. In fact, Jon and Martin, your hosts, would have only been starting school for the very first time at this point.As it transpires, the film that houses this break is entirely apposite for Martin’s early school experiences. But what of the ad break?We kick off with a paper wrongly read by millions, fronted by a man wrongly hated by millions, encouraging us to enter a competition that resulted in a man wrongly spending a million. From

Please note: you’ll notice there’s been a bit of a longer gap prior to releasing this one. Jon and I are finding that life is taking over a bit at the moment, so we’re moving to an 8 week release schedule (vs. the previous 6 weeks) for the sake of our collective sanity. Thanks for bearing with us!It’s Episode 6 and it’s our Summer Holiday special!But how? Why would a Summer special focus on an ad break from deep in the festive period?Booking cycles, old bean, booking cycles: unlike Martin’s dad,

Episode 5 and we’re taking a short hop further back to 1983.It’s the graveyard that is early January, but the nation is being pepped up by the UK TV premiere of “Superman”, a super speedy 5 years after its cinematic release!So, what super brands are riding on his, er, cape tails?Colgate bring in Arthur Fowler, or is it an alien decoy? Philips turn something potentially wildly exciting into a more phlegmatic experience. Homepride bring us something that is less translatable to 2025 than anything else

Episode 4 and we’re in the very crucible of the “crap” 80s: 1986.It’s late June and it’s early-period Bond. And yet, for an even-then ancient film, this ad break sees us dancing with the big boys, two of the very biggest boys in fact.So what would make McDonald’s and Coca-Cola come out for this? Could it have something to do with what’s lurking in the shadows of the evening schedules? We won’t give the game away, but Martin’s six year old self is about to experience the opening salvo of a lifetime

Episode 3 and we’re in the most late 80s of late 80s years: 1987.What’s more, it’s FA Cup Semi Final weekend. Yet something doesn’t quite seem right. The ad targeting seems off. Why is that?Setting that aside, it’s the usual curate’s rum bunch. The American military bring joy to extremely select households. Simon Bates and Dennis Waterman face off for the first time since Top of the Pops on 13 Nov, 1980.Persil prove that some mothers really do ‘ave ‘em. We go down a big steampunk crocodile hole of

Our second episode takes a short hop back to the late 80s. It’s the first Saturday night of 1988, and our New Year’s Resolutions are marked by intellectual aspiration. So we’re settling down to a night of Channel 4. But will the ads be in keeping with this loftiness?Well, despite watching commercial television, we’re not beyond the reach of Auntie, and she’s gone nuclear. Save & Prosper implore us to erm, invest and, possibly, prosper.Carlsberg rise to the occasion by rolling out the good stuff

Our first episode is a rip-roaring ride to the epicentre of the 80s: it’s 1985 and we’ve just been interrupted in our viewing of another classic from the Reg Grundy stable. But what an interlude it is. R Whites display the same ambivalence towards lemonade drinking that Trainspotting did towards heroin; Exchange & Mart issue a stark warning of the perils of using ropier, local listings papers; Castlemaine XXXX whisk us back to Australia in the 50s. Or the 80s, we couldn’t tell. BT invest a