Thursday, August 27

Thursday Drive: Nescafe Amore

From 1987-1993 in the UK and 1991-1997 in the U.S., TV viewers were captivated by - of all things - commercials for instant coffee (Nescafe Gold Blend in the UK, Taster's Choice Original Blend in the U.S.).

As a charming piece of British eye candy played by Anthony Head and his beautiful neighbor played by Sharon Maughan became totally besotted with one another, we became enchanted by them.


Oddly, in the UK version Tony Head's character was named Mathew, but in the U.S. version, he was "Michael". Sharon Maughan's character was never named.

On both sides of the Pond, each installment was eagerly awaited. In the UK, the commercials were even more popular than episodes of "Coronation Street".

Not bad for 30-second spots hawking instant coffee!

Here are eleven of the commercials (for Nescafe) in sequence:



And what could be called "Morning After" (obviously for U.S. audiences, as it features Taster's Choice):



Makes you wonder if she really ran out of coffee...

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3 comments:

LondonGirl said...

I remember this - my Dad thought it was hysterically funny and used to mock-swoon over the kitchen table if my mother offered him some tea or coffee.

Meg Brookman, Philip Jenck said...

We awaited each new installment with great anticipation. What fun to see them all at once like this. Thanks, Jama!

JamaGenie said...

LG, your dad mock-swooning over the kitchen table is rather cute and sweet in an odd sort of way.

Meg, I'm 99.9% certain the debut air date of the next installment would be published or announced somewhere. I know for at least one, some neighbors and I had a "watch party", so we had to have known ahead of time. It *is* nice seeing them altogether, at least the UK version. Maybe because of the popularity, the U.S. got several more installments that Brits didn't.