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Showing posts from January, 2021

Kia-Ora 80s TV Advert - I'll be your dog!

Anyone who watched British TV during the 1980s (or went to the cinema) will remember the Kia-Ora crows advert featuring the slogan "I'll be your dog".  You may well remember the Kia-Ora drinks in plastic cartons which the usherette used to sell in the cinema. They also sold them in our local youth club, although sometimes it was Tip Top orange, which kind of tasted like the carton.  The advert itself was pretty bizarre but also a lot of fun. It featured a child wearing a straw sunhat and carrying his belongings over his shoulder, while walking in the hot sun carrying an empty glass. Suddenly, a dog appears from nowhere and tips Kia-Ora orange into his glass. The sun wrings itself out into the glass to top it up.  A crow is following the child and shouts "Kia-Ora!". The child replies "It's too orangey for crows, It's just for me and my dog." The crow replies "I'll be your dog!", and then starts barking. As they continue to walk, an

Grange Hill Roland Eating Crisps T-shirt

Was Roland Browning always eating crisps on Grange Hill? Well, that's open for debate, but it would seem that I'm definitely not the only one to think that is was often crunch time for Roland, and there is actually a T-shirt available to pay homage to Roland's notorious crisp-eating habit. If, like myself, you watched Grange Hill between 1982 and 1987, then you will almost certainly remember Roland Browning, who was played by Erkan Mustafa. He was one of the biggest characters in the show (in more than one sense of the word!), and, thankfully, he isn't just remembered for eating crisps. You will probably also remember his black female friend Simone Nylander (Janet St-Clair) trying to help him fit in with school life. She was regularly asking him tedious questions such as "Ro-land, why are you so sad? and regularly repeated her catchphrase "I just want to help you Ro-land!". Her heart was in the right place, of course, but her constant questioning and that