As you read this, a crime most terrible will have been committed. That crime is the dropping of Heartbeat. It is my all-time favourite thing on the box because it brings together the music, vehicles and general atmosphere of the times. OK, so sometimes the background records are out of synch with the cars and trucks and you might, for example, hear a song that came out in 1963 and spot a 1966-reg Transit when the actual intention was to tie the two together. But that doesn’t matter because the series is not supposed to be an accurate historical reference for those who study such trivia. It’s meant to be nostalgic and entertaining.
So what’s all this got to do with classic commercials? Well, not a great deal, it must be confessed, except that Heartbeat was always good for spotting interesting vehicles and served as a reminder of an equally-as-interesting period in vehicle manufacture.
All of this has been spurred on by a recent trip to Goathland - the Yorkshire village where the series was filmed, disguised as Aidensfield. A most delightful spot and also blessed with steam trains. How dare you scrap this programme? I would dearly love to refuse to pay my TV licence fee except that ITV has no part of that and the revenue would be lost only to the BBC. And I have no axe to grind with the Beeb. Yet, anyway. But I don’t want to make anybody miserable and would like to sign off this month’s offerings with my usual joyous and happy aplomb. I’d like to, but sometimes, a bloke’s just got to have a moan. So, until next time, keep smiling and chucking your boot at the screen every time a piece of reality comes on. Tootle-pip, old beans.

Ted Connolly

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