Alternative celebrities for BR's 1980s ad campaign

[AY1975]

Not sure whether this belongs in Speculative Discussion or Railway History & Nostalgia, but those of us who can remember the early 1980s will probably recall British Rail's "This is the age of the train" advertising campaign featuring Jimmy Savile (and little did most people imagine what he was up to behind the scenes back then!). As I recall the campaign ran from about 1981-84.

I believe that Terry Wogan was one of the other shortlisted candidates to feature in that campaign, and to think that if Savile had already been arrested in the '70s BR probably would have hired Wogan instead.

Can anyone think of any other celebrities from that era who you think would have made good ad campaign mascots for BR? This can include solo celebrities, duettes or groups (e.g. pop or rock groups). If it's someone who was known to be a railway enthusiast and/or a regular rail user, that would be a bonus, but I don't think that's essential.

Here are a few I can suggest who I think would have been good:

ABBA (I seem to recall that they featured in a BR "Keep stations tidy" anti-litter campaign in about 1979)
Ronnie Barker and/or Ronnie Corbett
John Betjeman (although he died in 1984 and I think he was more or less confined to a wheelchair by the time he named a loco (a Class 86 as I recall0 at St Pancras in about 1983. I suppose he could have featured in ads for the Disabled Persons Railcard when it was launched in about 1981, though)
Kate Bush
Keith Chegwin
Roald Dahl (he produced a Guide to Railway Safety for BR aimed at children in about the late 1980s, not long before he died)
Bruce Forsyth
Simon Groom (from Blue Peter)
Thora Hird
Bob Holness (the quiz show presenter who hosted Blockbusters - in the late 1980s I thought the pre-recorded announcements at Richmond station sounded like him!)
Gloria Hunniford
David Jason and/or Nicholas Lyndhurst (and maybe a few others from the cast of Only Fools and Horses)
Bonnie Langford
Vera Lynn
Madness
Madonna
Michael Palin (who has presented a number of travel programmes, including at least one episode of Great Railway Journeys of the World in about 1980)
Esther Rantzen
Anneka Rice
Carol Vorderman
Pete Waterman

 

[Gloster]

I think you would need someone who was not too old, so as not to put off the young by having an ‘oldie’ telling them what to do, but still have some appeal to the middle-aged and elderly. Vorderman might fit the bill, but she was still little known early in the eighties. Rice might also do, but I am unsure if she was well-known then. (I have only had a TV for a few of the last fifty years.)

 

[bavvo]

Tom Baker might have fitted the bill.

 

[W-on-Sea]

Oddly, Keith Chegwin was the first name that sprang to my mind. He had a sort of bubbling enthuisasm them that might have worked well, albeit being less appararently authoratitive than Savile (who had recently done public service announcement about the newly mandatory use of seatbelts by car drivers, for example). Wogan indeed might have worked well - with the same "blessed (and untouchable) by the BBC" cachet that had also been given, rather less deservedly, to Savile.

 

[Trackman]

George Cole? Could have pseudo family if not in First class.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Jenny Logan from the Shake and Vac adverts

 

[yorksrob]

Terry Wogan would have been an excellent ambassador for BR.

If you wanted a radio 1 DJ, Kenny Everett would have been able to give the advertising a zany twist !

 

[W-on-Sea]

Maybe Annabel Lwin from Bow Wow Wow: "go wild, go wild, go wild in the country, with a young person's railcard you'll feel absolutely free"...at least, once she was eligible for one.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

"The Jam" might have been good for London suburbia and especially the Underground......

 

[Gloster]

"The Jam" might have been good for London suburbia and especially the Underground......

‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ is hardly the best advert for late-night travel on the Underground!

 

[NORMAN471]

Fred Dibnah, did you like that?

 

[TSG]

Oddly, Keith Chegwin was the first name that sprang to my mind. He had a sort of bubbling enthuisasm them that might have worked well,

Bubbling enthusiasm is about right. You might have struggled to get him away from the buffet car…

 

[Basil Jet]

‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ is hardly the best advert for late-night travel on the Underground!

Correct, but "Going Underground" was played by LU at various opening / celebration / press events back in the day.

 

[Gloster]

An unfortunate thought is that another one who might have fitted the bill in the early 1980s was Rolf Harris: a popular, all-round entertainer who would have been acceptable to a range of age groups. Unfortunately he was like Savile in other ways.

 

[Ashley Hill]

“Mad Lizzie’ the keep fit queen from TVAM. Full of upbeat energy and enthusiasm.

 

[nw1]

Correct, but "Going Underground" was played by LU at various opening / celebration / press events back in the day.

Which was of course a robust criticism of Thatcher and those who voted for her. Might have been a bit subversive for a public-sector organisation in the Thatcher years.

Maybe Annabel Lwin from Bow Wow Wow: "go wild, go wild, go wild in the country, with a young person's railcard you'll feel absolutely free"...at least, once she was eligible for one.

31 October 1982 apparently, so within the campaign period.

But I can't imagine her or The Jam getting involved in such a campaign in any case, as both were from the more alternative side of rock and pop, which rarely gets involved in advertising campaigns.

 

[brad465]

Here are a few I can suggest who I think would have been good:

ABBA (I seem to recall that they featured in a BR "Keep stations tidy" anti-litter campaign in about 1979)
Ronnie Barker and/or Ronnie Corbett
John Betjeman (although he died in 1984 and I think he was more or less confined to a wheelchair by the time he named a loco (a Class 86 as I recall0 at St Pancras in about 1983. I suppose he could have featured in ads for the Disabled Persons Railcard when it was launched in about 1981, though)
Kate Bush
Keith Chegwin
Roald Dahl (he produced a Guide to Railway Safety for BR aimed at children in about the late 1980s, not long before he died)
Bruce Forsyth
Simon Groom (from Blue Peter)
Thora Hird
Bob Holness (the quiz show presenter who hosted Blockbusters - in the late 1980s I thought the pre-recorded announcements at Richmond station sounded like him!)
Gloria Hunniford
David Jason and/or Nicholas Lyndhurst (and maybe a few others from the cast of Only Fools and Horses)
Bonnie Langford
Vera Lynn
Madness
Madonna
Michael Palin (who has presented a number of travel programmes, including at least one episode of Great Railway Journeys of the World in about 1980)
Esther Rantzen
Anneka Rice
Carol Vorderman
Pete Waterman

Madonna would have been brilliant if you could have got her, but in the early 80s I don't believe she was well known here, and then her rapid rise to fame in the mid-late 80s would have had you wondering would A-List Americans really have been approachable for UK transport adverts?

Bruce Forsyth would have been good, although the two Ronnies made a living out of mocking BR (including turning the BR logo into a Swastika).

An unfortunate thought is that another one who might have fitted the bill in the early 1980s was Rolf Harris: a popular, all-round entertainer who would have been acceptable to a range of age groups. Unfortunately he was like Savile in other ways.

Presumably the same could have been said about Stuart Hall, Gary Glitter and a host of other 70s' stars.

 

[Revilo]

Clive Gunnell (famous in the south west)
Tony Blackburn

 

[Ashley Hill]

Clive Gunnell (famous in the south west)

Blimey,I remember him on Westward Television!