Adverts Q-Z

A few years after the last of comedy series Keeping Up Appearances had aired, a Hyacinth Bucket-inspired character tries to appear better than the neighbours with how she keeps her bathroom here.

Robert Fyfe provides the voice of an animated block of Red Leicester here, in the days before he went on to star as Howard in Last of the Summer Wine.

A 'Change your Scenery' ad from 1998. Various characters mix seamlessly around the car to Marvellous by The Lightning Seeds.

A mix of animation and live action as a man digs a hole in the middle of the road - but he's still not working as hard as Right Guard.

A 1998 ad for Rolo. With deliberate aging applied to the film, we see the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Silver all wanting the last Rolo.

A young Michael Barrymore, famous at that time for hosting Strike it Lucky, appears to advertise the Rover Metro in 1989.

Neil Morrisey provided the voiceover for a small child for a series of adverts for former UK supermarket chain Safeway in the mid-nineties. Here a very localised version (albeit with generic footage) to celebrate the opening of a new store in Wolverhampton - these days the location having been taken over by Waitrose.

Scotch video cassettes, with their famous 'Re-record, not fade away' advert of the 80s. Based on the classic song, Not Fade Away, originally by Buddy Holly and covered in a later 1964 release by The Rolling Stones.

The Tin Man became synonymous with Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil (and their other associated products) throughout the 90s as part of a successful attempt to rejuvenate sales of the product. And in this one from 1993, he's even got himself a friend!

Where did Bet go after leaving Coronation Street? Well she did star in this Shredded Wheat advert - onwards and upwards in the world!

A classic Skol Lager ad from 1986. Containing Hagar The Horrible, who appeared in several Skol adverts at the time, we hear a brief rendition of the Skol song (sung to the tune of Monty Python's Spam Song).

Still fresh from the BSkyB merger earlier that month, Sky promote their subscription service with an advert for The World Masters snooker. Given what a killer part sport would play for the broadcaster in the following years, it's hard to remember a time where it was almost more of afterthought to their movies service.

John Cleese encourages the country to Quit Smoking in 1993.

A simple advert from April 1992 heralding the arrival of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System to the UK. Nintendo's challenger to the Sega Megadrive for the 16 bit battle of the 90s.

A few years later, and the ad style for Snickers has moved into those much bigger earners - using Football and Comedy!

Creating the stuff of nightmares is this computer rendered advert from SmithKline Beecham, as they were then known, for painkillers.

A few years later, although for some reason we're still living by the coast. Was Special K not allowed to be consumed by anyone living further inland in the 90s?

After being used for many years, Verdi's Overture to La Forza Del Destino became almost synonymous with the Stella Artois campaigns, doubtless not to the like of opera lovers. Here it plays out over the background of a story about an expensive pair of shoes, one of many such adverts promoting the drink as 'Reassuringly Expensive'.

A colourful advert with a catchy and memorable tune for Sun Valley Chicken from the early 90s. An attempt to shake off the preconceived image and make pre-packaged chicken products look more gourmet.

The original Tandy UK electronics chain launched in 1973, and at one time were a well known name on the British high street. This advert from Christmas 1996 is from their latter years as the UK stores were ultimately sold off to Carphone Warehouse three years later, who had quietly phased them out by 2001. Similar to Woolworths, these days the name still exists in the UK but as an online-only store with little connection to the original chain, after the brand was sold on in 2012.

Okay dont kill me... its an advert for Tango. Tango ads have earned the reputation over the years for being... well pointless! This was one of a series of ads shown around the time of the General Election, and designed to look like a political campaign. This one urges us to vote for Orange Tango.

And then the equally pointless follow-up ad. Basically, 'the boss' tells the person responsible for the clowns ad that people 'didn't get it', and proceeds to teach him a lesson!

Up to 2003 with Tango ads now, and they're still as insane as ever.

A typically strange ad for Tango's new...um... Strange Soda. Two slightly differently worded edits of this advert are known to exist.

Actor Steven Hartley appears in this mammoth 90-second long advert for Tennents in 1989. An actor probably better known for his role in The Bill as the suicidal rapist Superintendent Tom Chandler. Presumably that was not as a result of drinking the lager all those years before!

Although the round bags had now been on the market for 2 years, it was still considered a big selling point for Tetley in 1991. Here The Teafolk let everyone know how it'll improve those days when everything has turned a bit square.

A Tetley Tea advert from 1997. This was one of the last to feature the Tetley Tea Folk in their old guise, before they were abolished for a while. Only to be reintroduced again in 2010 for a short time.

A reminder that the defunct Toys R Us did have adverts before the 1989 'Magical Place' one they became synonymous with for the rest of their life, with a live action one here from 1988. Also coming from a pre-internet era where it was still acceptable to suggest dolls and teddies were perfect for girls and action toys for boys, without being lynched by parents on social media.

A nice advert for the Ford Transit in 2001, set to Slade's Coz I Luv You. This advert originally started out with the slogan 'Transit - The Backbone of Britain' hence the build up to showing a 'backbone' of lights across the country. However in later variants this was later changed to the far less imaginative 'Job Done' slogan for some reason.

A mix of many different types of sweets make up this collection from Trebor at the end of the 80s.

A giant boot and nest feature in this TSB ad from 1992.

To welcome in New Year 2018, Tunnocks hired out an extended slot on network ITV, which they then used to air a series of adverts from their long history welcoming in the fresh year.

An ad for TV Times from 1984. These ads all but disappeared after TV Listings were fully opened up in the 90s. Up until then, only the Radio Times carried the BBC, whilst TV Times carried ITV/Channel 4.

Another TV Times advert, this time from March 1987. With the cover feature this time round being Rupert Everett from Another Country on Channel 4. Also featuring The World's Most Pointless Dice.

The first of 2 Twix ads from the late 90s featuring sensible 'Norm'. In this one, the guy is thinking of buying a sporty red car.

A brief ad for Typhoo One Cup, mixing colour and black and white footage.

Vauxhall film scenes from lots of abstract camera angles to show the 'off-roadiness' of their new Frontera in 1995.

This famous campaign for Volkswagen launched in 1987 and starred Paula Hamilton styled up as a Diana-esque character. Leaving her husband after the breakup of a marriage, she is seen throwing away luxury items, before deciding to keep the VW car. At the time, the advert was hailed as a sign of a car advert finally targeting women complete with a strong female lead, contrasting with the traditional style of car advertising. The song used in the ad is 'Changes' written by Alan Price.

Woaaaahhh-ohhh! Vitalite... That's right!! The sun is back in 1993... or for a short while at least. He's been getting grumpier in his old age, and with them introducing so many long words to the spread now too, he finally snaps and goes on strike leaving the moon to take over.

Warburtons from 1992 and have you ever seen such a lovely Blackpool Milk Roll?

A parody of Indiana Jones for this Weetabix ad from 1987, featuring those lovable Weetabix characters.

A nice and humourous little advert for Weetabix from the end of 1990, based around the story of Troy.

Nicholas Lyndhurst takes on a variety of roles as the family in WH Smiths' Christmas campaign for 1996. After all, what is a boy to do when he can't find any wrapping paper?

A tongue twisting song for Cadbury's Wispa from 1993. This was in the days before Cadbury strangely decided to abolish the bars and established brand in favour of 'Cadbury Dairy Milk with Bubbles', a decision which was later reversed.

Advertising songs for Christmas with a simple advert, it's the defunct UK high street chain Woolworths.

Harry Enfield stars in this 1996 Worthington's advert. Boldly proclaiming how 'she' has been breeding men for 30 years, before launching in to a parody of dog food adverts.

Why is a man's head so full of boring old rubbish? er... its the question everyone asks!!

The most famous advertising campaign for Yellow Pages, the big phone directory of businesses, aired during the 80s. They featured the book coming to the rescue when no-one else could. In this version, a young male needs some French Polishers to save his life after a crazy party at his parent's house. Originally owned by BT before being sold off as a separate company, the UK editions of the Yellow Pages itself were published from 1966 right through until the end of 2018, when the company finally decided to discontinue the ever-shrinking print copy in favour of going entirely online.

Originally produced during the 'Good Old Yellow Pages' era in the early 90s, the famous Christmas version of the Yellow Pages advert well outlived any others from the campaign. Reappearing every Christmas without fail well into the 2000s, when only the internet largely killing off the big thick book resulted in the advert becoming increasingly irrelevant.