J.R. Hartley
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J.R. Hartley is both the name of a fictional character and an author's pseudonym inspired by it.
The fictional author
The fictional character appeared in television advertisements for Yellow Pages (a British commercial telephone directory) first shown in 1983. The character was played by the actor Norman Lumsden.
The advertisement shows an elderly man going into several bookshops asking for a book called Fly Fishing by an author named "J. R. Hartley". Every attempt fails, and the next scene shows him at home looking dejected. His daughter, sympathising, hands him a copy of the Yellow Pages and the next scene features him looking delighted as a bookshop replies that they have a copy of the book. He asks them to keep it for him, and they ask for his name. He replies, "My name? Oh, yes, it's J.R.Hartley".
This advertisement is one of the most popular ever made in Britain, and remained a part of popular culture long after it ceased to be shown. The advertisement was affectionately parodied by comedians in the 1980s many times, for example by Jasper Carrott and Mel Smith & Griff Rhys-Jones. When Lumsden died in 2001 aged 95, despite his numerous other roles and distinguished career as an opera singer, the death of the man who played J.R. Hartley was the national headlines, and the advertisement was broadcast again in his memory nearly 20 years after its first appearance.
Life imitates art
An author who in 1991 brought out a book about fly fishing noted how much of a cult figure the fictional Hartley had become, and published it under the pseudonym J R Hartley. Two further books on the subject followed under the same name.
External links
- Yell:UK page about historic advertisements for Yellow Pages (http://www.yellgroup.com/pages/ukoperations-ukadvertisingpromotion-historicadvertising)
- IMDB biography of Norman Lumsden (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525972/bio)
- Obituary for Lumsden in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4310537,00.html)