CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Crispy Pancakes and Angel Delight make a tasty TV supper
The supermarket from the 1970s
The bold type
Whether Florence ever made it home, we’ll never know. But the 1973 ad that launched Findus Crispy Pancakes was a heartbreaking mini-epic, a novel crammed into 30 seconds.
“My wife left me last week,” announces a sideburned fellow from Gene Hunt as he sets the dining room table. How’s that for an opening line? He warns his four children to behave, adding, “Bored, she said.”
It’s not his conversation or his lack of adventure in the bedroom that drove her away, but their bland diet. So he tries something new, baking ready-made pancakes with steak and kidney fillings.
“When you’re there, Florence, come home,” he pleads. “It’s more fun now.” And the jingle sounds, assuring us that ‘every day is pancake day’.
This promo, remembered on The 1970s Supermarket (Ch5), was a masterpiece of subliminal intelligence. Not only did the kids love these pancakes, but they turned them into a meal so easy to prepare that even a man could handle it. Every part of the ad was cleverly designed to appeal to housewives… and there wasn’t even a woman in the picture. Genius!
Rustie Lee recreates a crispy pancake in Serets of the 70s Supermarket Episode 1 (Ch5)
This cheerful three-part documentary, narrated by actress Debbie Chazen, lured us in by pretending to chuckle about the food of 50 years ago, then revealed just how clever it all was: the marketing, the flavors, and the production lines.
Chef Rustie Lee tried to recreate crispy pancakes in the kitchen, with some success, but her version of Spam fritters was a bust. Once a specialty of college dinner ladies everywhere, the recipe seems to have been lost in time. If Rustie plans to keep trying, she’ll have to use a lot more batter.
The Lovely Debbie McGee told us that hubby Paul Daniels loved a Pot Noodle, while she preferred Boiled Cod with Parsley…and both were addicted to Angel Delight.
She might have been less enthused if she’d seen the powdered cochineal beetles that gave strawberry Angel Delight its neon-pink color, or the emulsifier that made it taste creamy by trapping air bubbles in a layer of fat. Now that’s magic!
However they deny it, the junior editors of New York women’s magazine Scarlet are caught up in the sex wars of the 1970s in The Bold Type (BBC3).
With its unashamed undertones of Meghan Markle’s lawyer soap Suits, this glossy office drama pays lip service to current attitudes to gender and sexuality. But the real concerns are deeply old-fashioned: Is a secretary ever allowed to sleep with an executive, and is it ever wrong to stalk an ex-boyfriend?
The show, which first aired in the US in 2017, stars Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy as aspiring young millennials. They try to deal with the sheer unfairness of having less exciting jobs than their older colleagues, who are nowhere near as good-looking or idealistic.
The Bold Type stars Aisha Dee as Kat Edison, Katie Stevens as Jane Sloan, Meghann Fahy as Sutton Brady
Gradually, the girls come to understand that old-timers in the office, some of them so old as to be in their 40s, have a purpose. This goal is to smile wisely and pass on their experience to the juniors.
Their editor, Jacqueline (Melora Hardin), has the psychic ability to sense their presence with her back turned, and can materialize as a fairy godmother when advice needs to be given. The Bold Type is the kind of drama where women dance wildly on platforms to show they’re happy, even when there’s no music. They close their eyes, smile ecstatically and wave their arms above their heads.
This also happens a lot in advertisements, I’ve noticed. Maybe it’s a side effect of crispy pancakes.