Tobacco adverts were banned from television screens in the early '90's. Possibly the best remembered series of tobacco commercials were those for Benson & Hedges' Hamlet cigars, which came first to our screens in 1964. In order to celebrate the 28 years that the commercials were on screen, Castle Vision video compiled some of the very best commercials together, which were narrated by the late William Rushton.
'Hamlet - The Video' starts off with Rushton walking into a museum. He asks the receptionist for a catalogue, but instead is given a video device in which a guide ( also played by Rushton ) talks him through the Hamlet hall of fame. We are then onto an amusing black and white film sequence in which two copyrighters ( played by Ade Edmondson and John Gordon Sinclair ) are trying to think of an advertising campaign to boost the cigars but are constantly interrupted by a nearby orchestra practising playing 'Air On A G-String'. This gives them an idea for their campaign.
The idea behind the adverts is very simple - a person performing an ordinary activity falls victim to circumstance. What follows is the victim then lighting a cigar, looking content as they puff away on it, whilst the announcer says over a blast of 'Air On A G-String', ''Happiness is a cigar called 'Hamlet'!''.
The very first commercial, broadcast in 1964, saw John Clive, in a hospital bed, his leg in traction, puffing happily on a cigar, without a care in the world about his predicament. Amongst some of the best adverts in the collection had John Bluthal as a crippled cricket spectator being unable to keep his eye on the ball due to his disposition, an archaeologist prizing an Egyptian sarcophagus open and striking a match to gain some light, only for the mummy inside to use the match to light its cigar, Frankenstein's monster awaking to find he has a pair of women's legs grafted to his body, though the best of all featured Gregor Fisher as his famous alter ego 'The Baldy Man' whose attempts to get his photo taken in a coin booth are thwarted by not only the flash going off at the wrong time but the seat collapsing just before the final flash. The 'photo booth' item had been used as the first 'Baldy Man' sketch in the first episode of 'Naked Video' three years before the advert was made.
'Hamlet - The Video' is a good wander down memory lane for those of us who have a love for vintage commercials, helped by the wonderfully comedic narration provided by William Rushton. Clive Corner is hilarious as the man seen wandering around in a chicken costume, who somehow manages to bag off with the blind date girl ( played by the gorgeous Andree Bernard ), much to Willie's dismay. Some years ago, 'The baldy man in the photo booth' sketch was featured on the top 20 list of 'ITV's Best Ever Ads', where it reached Number. 9. It just goes to show that the adverts still have the power to amuse after all those years.
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