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This one is for older grans…..not ageist honestly!

(67 Posts)
Lexisgranny Fri 13-Jan-23 10:20:18

When I was quite a young child - I’m thinking early 50s - there used to be a sort of home style programme on TV mid Sunday afternoon. Bearing in mind that there was obviously no ITV , they actually advertised products that were on sale in shops. One of the presenters was a mature lady called Molly Something. I remember her demonstrating Tetley teabags (my father took a very dim view of them) and also some kind of cling film. She put something in a bowl, added the cling film over it, tipped it upside down and then wrapped the top with her knuckles and pronounced ‘tight as a drum’. Isn’t it funny the totally insignificant things that you remember?

Well my problem is that has popped into my mind over the years (generally when I am using one of the products) but I have never met anyone who remembers the programme. There must be someone out there who can confirm that I am remembering correctly and not just losing my marbles.

M0nica Sat 14-Jan-23 09:18:36

Biglouis When tea bags came in, I thought the wet used ones looked like little t*rds, and I couldn't bring myself to use them.

I am a little less squeamish now and will use fruit tea bags because they are usually, deep red wine colour when used.

In the early days the purpose of tea bags was to find a use for tea dust and cheaper tea leaves etc, so I stuck to loose tea. I only drink one cup of tea a day, so making it in a teapot with tea, makes a real break mid-afternoon.

FannyCornforth Sat 14-Jan-23 04:32:06

NanKate

Was Molly Weir in the radio show ‘Life with the Lyons’ ?

Yes, she was

lemsip Fri 13-Jan-23 22:06:17

I remember Houseparty. cherry marshall and mary morris. two others I can't remember there names.. some on you tube. 1950/60

NanKate Fri 13-Jan-23 21:55:41

Was Molly Weir in the radio show ‘Life with the Lyons’ ?

M0nica Fri 13-Jan-23 21:53:41

Commercial tv started in 1955, so it could be an ITV programme

biglouis Fri 13-Jan-23 21:47:48

I dont think Ive ever made tea without tea bags. Far too messy.

Lexisgranny Fri 13-Jan-23 21:46:59

No it was definitely Doris Something, that’s one thing I do remember. The programme itself was very low key. When Tetley’s started to advertise their tea bags, I think it was with Lady Isobel Barnett. I must say I have never come across cling film that was so user friendly (ie didn’t scrunch up so easily) and I have never got mine ‘as tight as a drum’!

aquagran Fri 13-Jan-23 18:43:03

Jimmy Hanley, Jim’s in 1957

varian Fri 13-Jan-23 18:10:57

I can't remember who ever promoted tea bags or thought they were a good idea.

I'm with the Granny who cut them open to put the leaves in the pot.

I still make my tea by puting leaves in the pot but I do buy a packet of tea leaves, I don't cut open teabags.

I wonder how much global warming has been caused over the last fifty years by the manufacture and use of totally unnecessary teabags?

Nannagarra Fri 13-Jan-23 15:10:36

Tetley appears to have promoted tea bags in 1953.
The programme?
The presenter?

FannyCornforth Fri 13-Jan-23 14:51:49

Germanshepherdsmum

I think Philip Hagen stuck to cooking. There was Clement Freud too a bit later, looked like a bloodhound !

Yes I think Katy Boyle did advertise Camay.

Freud’s ad for Minced Morsels

FannyCornforth Fri 13-Jan-23 14:49:09

V3ra

Not the programme you're asking about Lexisgranny but I can remember watching an afternoon ladies-only chat show called "House Party" on Southern television, I think in the 70s.

Guests rang a doorbell and were invited in, there were ladies demonstrating domestic skills or just chatting in the different rooms of the "house" and drinking coffee.
All very well groomed.

I used to watch it avidly and think how grown up it all seemed 🤣

That’s the one I was thinking of!
Thank you V3ra.
We had Central (nee ATV, I think) and I must have been very young.
Mind you, I remember Ernest Bishop being shot - and I was only four at the time!
Funny the things we remember smile

Germanshepherdsmum Fri 13-Jan-23 14:11:06

Yes.

varian Fri 13-Jan-23 14:02:56

Was Katie Boyle not the original presenter of The Eurovision Song Contest, who impressed us all with her fluency in French so we all learned how to perfectly pronounce "nil points"?

Nell8 Fri 13-Jan-23 13:56:22

I don't think my friend's granny was concentrating when the teabags were being demonstrated. Apparently she would snip the tops off and pour the contents into her teapot.

Germanshepherdsmum Fri 13-Jan-23 13:46:18

I think Philip Hagen stuck to cooking. There was Clement Freud too a bit later, looked like a bloodhound !

Yes I think Katy Boyle did advertise Camay.

Oopsadaisy1 Fri 13-Jan-23 13:44:26

Unless it was BBC, it’s likely that your own TV region would put its own, local programmes out. So we might have had different programmes to you?
We didn't get a television until 1957.
But I remember Katie Boyle doing the advert later for cling film, my mother said it was ridiculous and would never work!

1987H2001M2002Inanny Fri 13-Jan-23 13:33:38

The name Katy Boyle reminds me of a Camay soap advert .Is this correct?

biglouis Fri 13-Jan-23 13:32:20

We got our TV for the coronation and I can recall Philip Harben. He was a well built guy with a beard. But I dont recall the show with the clingfilm or teabags.

V3ra Fri 13-Jan-23 13:26:59

Not the programme you're asking about Lexisgranny but I can remember watching an afternoon ladies-only chat show called "House Party" on Southern television, I think in the 70s.

Guests rang a doorbell and were invited in, there were ladies demonstrating domestic skills or just chatting in the different rooms of the "house" and drinking coffee.
All very well groomed.

I used to watch it avidly and think how grown up it all seemed 🤣

Calendargirl Fri 13-Jan-23 13:24:13

Maybe not Doris Rogers!

Philip Harben did a show with Marguerite Patten, could it have been her?

Calendargirl Fri 13-Jan-23 13:17:58

Lexisgranny

No it wasn’t Molly Weir I remember her. This lady was ( and here I am trying to choose my words carefully) of comfortable proportions, grey haired, probably about late fifties, though I find it difficult to put an age on anyone back then. There was a gentleman with her, but I can’t remember anything about him. She sticks in my mind because of my father’s aversion to tea bags, and the subsequent uncomplimentary comments when she appeared waving her box enthusiastically. They didn’t technically try to sell anything, more that they were displaying these wonderful new inventions, albeit mentioning their trade names.

Was it ‘Doris Rogers’?

The name has just come to me, and didn’t Philip Harben, a chef with a beard, do some cooking on the programme?

(Am now going to look up DR)!

Lexisgranny Fri 13-Jan-23 12:43:45

Katek That could have been the title, but I seem to remember it was called a ‘Magazine’ programme, and I’m not sure that my father would have been watching a programme for housewives. I’ve been trying to pin down the approximate year, I think it was on for quite a while so I would probably say 1954-58. I’m basing this on the age I would be watching tv with my parents on Sunday afternoons! Thanks to you all for your interest.

Cressida Fri 13-Jan-23 12:15:29

I just read Katie Boyle's article on Wikipedia and noticed this

In Queen Elizabeth II: A Woman Who Is Not Amused by Nicholas Davies it is alleged that Boyle had a long-standing relationship with Prince Philip in the 1950s. Boyle told Gyles Brandreth: "It's ludicrous, pure fabrication. When it appears in print, people believe it. You can't take legal action because it fans the flames, so you just have to accept people telling complete lies about you."

Lexisgranny Fri 13-Jan-23 12:12:07

No it wasn’t Molly Weir I remember her. This lady was ( and here I am trying to choose my words carefully) of comfortable proportions, grey haired, probably about late fifties, though I find it difficult to put an age on anyone back then. There was a gentleman with her, but I can’t remember anything about him. She sticks in my mind because of my father’s aversion to tea bags, and the subsequent uncomplimentary comments when she appeared waving her box enthusiastically. They didn’t technically try to sell anything, more that they were displaying these wonderful new inventions, albeit mentioning their trade names.