British Telecom Arrives...

In 1980, Post Office Telecommunications became British Telecom and would become a totally separate public corporation on 1 October 1981.

A popular saying of the late '70s and early '80s, a play on the "make someone happy with a phone call" ads, was "make someone happy - wring Buzby's neck".

Sounds hard, eh? Well, I don't think we really hated Buzby. Perhaps we just saw too much of him.

October 1981 - Buzby tops "hate" poll!

The 1980s: BT Phones For Sale, Plug And Socket Home Phones And Card Phones Arrive...

A Rhapsody table telephone in tan leather from BT, released in 1981. Why? I dunno.

In 1981, BT began to sell telephones for the first time.

So, perhaps the 1981 leather job happened in a fit of excitement as the BT designers sought to capture the imaginations (and cash) of those looking to buy a phone?

Maybe.

Ken Masters (Stephen Yardley), the medallion man of Howards' Way, had one of these phones (or something very similar) beside his bed in early episodes of the series, which began in 1985. And that absolute charmer Polly Urquhart (Patricia Shakesby) was also seen brandishing something very like it for several seasons.

Classy.

With phones on sale for the very first time in the early 1980s, that terrific 1960s innovation, the trimphone suddenly went colourful!

Read all about it here.

The new BT phone sockets arrived on the 19th of November 1981, and this advertisement from The Sun dates from 23/11:

At British Telecom, we're rather proud of ourselves.

Our new plug and socket is going to revolutionise the way you use the phone.

No longer will it be fixed in one place. Thanks to our little device, you'll be able to make and take calls wherever you want.

From now on, it'll be the standard fitting with all new extensions we install in the home.

Whilst they're doing that job, our engineers will convert any existing instruments free.

And they'll be happy to put extra sockets in any other rooms you like for a small charge.

Apart from making it possible to move phones around, the new plug and socket makes it easier and cheaper to replace one phone with another.

Eventually all new phones will use the system, which has been developed exclusively by British Telecom.

It's the beginning of our great plan for the 80s.

Londoners were introduced to another BT innovation in 1981, as the Times, 28/7, reported...

Plastic Money for Phones

Public telephones which use pre-paid plastic cards, are now in operation in London. (Bill Johnstone writes). They will soon appear in Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

The telephones, called Cardphones, take cards of the same shape and size as a credit card. Each represents so many 5p call units. Two types are available: 40 units (value £2) or 200 units (£10).

Callers insert the card instead of coins and a digital readout on the telephone gives the value still left on the card as the call progresses.

The cards are available in London from Post Offices and some John Menzies and Travellers Fare kiosks at railway stations.

They can be used for inland and international calls. About 200 Cardphones will be in use for the trial and if they are successful more will be introduced.

Radio Times, November 1985.

1981/1982: Buy A Trimphone PLEASE - We'll Give You Funky Two-Tone Colours, We'll Call Them Phoenixphones... We'll Knock £15 Off.... We'll Do ANYTHING

From the Daily Mail, April 15, 1981. British Telecom arrived in 1980 and in 1981 began selling phones for the very first time. Before that subscribers could only rent, and there wasn't much choice of styles. The Trimphone arrived in the 1960s, and with its distinctive warble was supposedly set for great things.

The Trimphone of the 1960s and 1970s came in one sludgy colour scheme (ignore Life On Mars and Margaret - they'll put you wrong - more about that later!) and I've often wondered just how popular they were? If you watch actual television shows of the era, how many Trimphones do you see?

Crossroads, the ITV Midlands soap, had one of the early sludge-coloured beauties - it was in the very trendy flat of the womanising restaurant manager (later home to Miss Diane) - and was on-screen from 1977 until the mid-1980s.

Incidentally, in a 1983 episode of Crossroads I recently viewed, the Trimphone rang on one occasion like a traditional bell-ringer phone. This was obviously because the chap or chappess in charge of the sound effects had forgotten to use the "warble effect". None of the characters on screen appeared to notice the oddness of this event. Crossroads was endearingly batty at times!

But, apart from the very odd one in Crossroads, Trimphones were thin on the ground on the telly.

In 1981, with their desire to sell phones, that brave new entity, BT, seemed very keen indeed to flog off Trimphones. So, they gave them lovely two-tone colours. And offered £15.00 off.

From the newspaper ad above:

The Trimphone is a lightweight phone with a melodious warble. It combines the best in modern technology with a timeless elegance of design.

Normally, it costs quite a bit more than an ordinary phone, as you might expect. However, until 31 July 1981, we're offering it to you at a knock-down price.

There are two models, the press-button and a dial model. They come in a range of 3 attractive two-tone colours.

For full details, do one of two things. Call the operator and ask for Freefone 888 anytime during office hours, or fill in the coupon (no stamp required). Either way, you'll get a warble for a song.

I'm not sure how successful this marketing ploy was. Everybody I knew who had a telephone (apart from my posh auntie who had a Trimphone - but then she would) had a bog standard traditional dial bell-ringer and I noticed none of these new colourful 1981 Trimphones suddenly bursting out all over.

In early 1982, BT, seemingly absolutely determined to flog these phones, went further.

The two-tone colour gimmick of 1981 continued, but the Trimphones were now called Phoenixphones. Lord Snowdon had a hand in picking the colours, and they were all part of "The Snowdon Collection". There's stylish for you!

The Trimphone goes colourful - the 1982 Phoenix Phone, sorry, Phoenixphone, all one word, available in dial or push-button models.

I didn't see any of these new telephonic style icons on my daily rounds. And BT released such a range of telephones for sale in the 1980s that the Trimphone/Phoenixphone soon seemed positively quaint.

Bizarrely, a couple of the red trimphones - sorry, Phoenixphones - have recently, quite wrongly, appeared in TV programmes set in the 1970s - including Life On Mars and Margaret.

They've also cropped up on one or two websites dedicated to phones as "70s" items and are often falsely sold as such on eBay.

Odd, isn't it - just how many '60s and '80s pop culture items are attributed to the 1970s?

But then perhaps it's not so surprising - the modern day fantasy view of the 1970s largely depends on 1960s and 1980s realities to keep up its totally fake "funky" image!

1987: "You Got An Ology?" Beattie Makes Her BT Debut...

Having been told by her grandson Anthony that he has failed most of his exams - only passing pottery and sociology, Beattie cries: "He gets an ology and he says he's failed... you get an ology you're a scientist..."

Beattie Bellman was created by Richard Phillips of the J Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1987. And she was originally to have been called Dora.

The BT Beattie ads were launched in late 1987. Maureen Lipman states in the 1989 script book You Got An Ology? that the recording of the first ten ads, accomplished in just over two weeks, took place either side of the great gale of October 1987!

Those first ten ads included the legendary "Ology".

Here's what a recent BT on-line history said about Mrs Bellman:

1987: A star is born and Beattie takes the nation by storm. Maureen Lipman's Jewish granny goes on to star in 32 TV commercials and contributes the word "ology" to the English language.

Beattie made her screen debut in December 1987.

Beattie's family, included husband Harry (Geoffrey Chiswick), son Melvyn (Linal Haft), and daughter Elaine (Caroline Quentin).

The phone Beattie used in the "ology" ad was a BT Tribune, released in 1987. This one is still in use on my hall extension. Nice design - it wasn't until the mid-to-late 1980s that push-button models really began to take over from the dial phone.

This ladies gown shop manager, played by Richard Wilson, is being driven to distraction by a telephone enquiry from Mrs Bellman.

Bernard Bresslaw and Miriam Margoyles played Gerald and Dolly, friends of Beattie and Harry.

During her screen appearances, Beattie met new technological marvels like cardphones, answerphones and car phones. Here she is on son Melvyn's car phone: "Over and out."

Elaine (Caroline Quentin), Beattie's daughter, with her daughter, Zara. Beattie was worried: "Look at that haircut! The poor child won't know whether she's Martha or Arthur!"

"You Got an Ology?" by Maureen Lipman and Richard Phillips, Robson Books, 1989. A fun read, containing twenty of the Beattie ad scripts and more!

The word "ology" became a major catchphrase and Beattie haunts Maureen Lipman to this day!

The ads won so many awards that Beattie must have had her mantelpiece reinforced with steel and concrete to support them all.

One of my all-time favourite ad series.

The 1987 BT "Ology" ad.

1987 - Nokia Cityman, "You Got An Ology?", House Music, Respectable, All Night TV, It's A Sin, The Great Gale, Black Monday, "Nessie, Are You There?"

1987 saw the yuppies reaching the height of happiness. It seemed to be the year of yuppiedom. There was a feeling in the air that mankind had been striving to reach 1987 since creation, and we were now here - chortle, chortle! Nothing need ever change again. The feeling was strong, tangible. Strolling along, reeking of Mandate, bound for yet another night out, I sniffed the summer air and felt a sense of well being I'd never thought possible.

But 1987 was not what it seemed: if most of 1987 was yuppie heaven, from late-October onwards was sheer yuppie hell and, far more importantly, that month also left a trail of death and destruction...

More about 1987's month of turmoil here.

The 1980s had built up a stock of acronyms, and these were in full bloom in 1987. Were you a nimby? This stood for Not In My Backyard. You might be happy to see hostels for the homeless established, nuclear waste dumping sites found etc - just as long as they weren't in your neck of the woods. Then, of course, there were yuppies (young urban professionals). The coining of the "yuppie" tag happened in America in the early 1980s.

20th Century Words by John Ayto, traces the name back to 1982 and defines a yuppie thus:

a member of a socio-economic group comprising young professional people working in cities of a type thought of as typifying the ethos of the 1980s: ambitious, go-getting, newly affluent, young, class-free, owing no debt to the past. Originally US; a hybrid word coined probably by grafting an acronym based on "Young Urban Professional" (or "Young Upwardly mobile Professional") on to a basic model suggested by hippie.

Coincidentally, the book traces the hippie word back to 1953! This came as something of a surprise to me as hippies and everything to do with hippiedom are usually so strongly associated with the 1960s.

Returning to the 1980s, I have read that the yuppie word was first coined in 1981, whilst 20th Century Words, as seen above, traces it to 1982. Whilst there is no doubt that it is an early 1980s coinage, yuppies were most prevalent in the mid-to-late decade.

I've also discovered that as well as plain and simple yuppies there were buppies (black yuppies), Juppies (Japanese yuppies), guppies (gay yuppies) and green yuppies (environmentally concerned yuppies).

And then there were oinks (people with one income, no kids); dinkys (people with dual incomes, no kids yet); minkys (middle income, no kids yet); jollies (jet setting oldsters with lots of loot); glams (greying, leisured affluent middle aged); swells (single women earning lots of loot)... and it went on and on.

Perhaps you were a foodie - obsessively into food trends?

The Eighties/New Man thing was still going strong.

1987 was posh, even the crisps had gone upmarket by this time - "Cheese and onion?" "No, ta, cheese and chive for me." It was so posh that Donna Summer would have been having Dinner With Gershwin and watching Rembrandt sketch if they'd still been about. But it was also brash. The shoulder pads were at maximum stretch. The hair was too big, the puffball skirts too yucky. But we didn't realise.

NMT, the world's first international cellular mobile telephone network, had opened in Scandinavia in 1981. In 1987, the Nokia Cityman, the world's first NMT hand portable, was launched. More here.

Still on the subject of phones, Maureen Lipman made her debut as Jewish grandma Beattie Bellman in the famous BT "ology" ad series. For further details click here!

Musically, we were hearing an exciting new sound which was bursting out of America: House. After Farley "Jackmaster" Funk reaching No 10 in the UK singles chart in late 1986, Steve "Silk" Hurley took it to the top when Jack Your Body made Number 1 in January 1987.

Remember H... H... H... House Nation, which invaded the airwaves in September?

House was a new genre of electronic music which originated in Chicago, USA, in the early 1980s. And here in 1987 we were well and truly reaping the benefits.

M/A/R/R/S took us screeching towards the Dance era with Pump Up The Volume, we were Star Trekkin' with The Firm, Kirsty and the Pogues gave us the wonderful Fairytale of New York for Christmas, and the Pet Shop Boys told us It's A Sin.

Neighbours, cancelled by Australian Channel 7, had been picked up by their Channel 10, and we began to see the Channel 10 episodes here in 1987. This was the year we first clapped eyes on busybody Mrs Mangel. Played by the English-born actress Vivean Gray, Mrs Mangel was the type of sticky beak character essential to all good soaps. Mrs M palled up with Eileen Clarke (played by another English-born actress, Myra de Groot) and the two gave the soap some of its finest and funniest moments.

The role of Neighbours' skate boarding teen Scott Robinson was recast - a young actor called Jason Donovan stepped into the role, and soon he needed a love interest. The character Charlene Mitchell was introduced, played by another young unknown, Kylie Minogue. 1987 saw Scott and Charlene marry in Australia, however we lagged behind and would have to wait until 1988. Neighbours' popularity swelled enormously here in 1987, and Scott and Charlene's courtship kept ever-increasing numbers of us glued to the screens. "Read All About It" here.

Soap, soap n' more soap was the order of the day. But after Pammy's dream in Dallas the previous year, could we really take any more weirdness?

In Dynasty spin-off The Colbys, Fallon was whisked away at the end of the series in a flying saucer. More here.

It was a great year for Michael Douglas. On at the flicks was the morality tale Wall Street ("greed is good"), and the chilling Fatal Attraction. The bunny was on the boil. Conveniently, I managed to spill my popcorn at several tense moments during the film, and so was spared the worst scenes.

Glenn Close put in an absolutely stunning performance as the very first bunny boiler... remember that bathroom scene, where she lies beneath the water, apparently dead, with that slightly puzzled, slightly hurt expression on her face? Then - ARRRGGGHHH!! - up she rises and, oh dear, there goes the popcorn again...

Actually, I didn't go to the pictures very often because I preferred to dance. I loved the local Nite Spot; I loved the black and chrome decor and all the full length mirrors; I loved the pink and blue neons; I loved togging myself up in my white chinos; or one of my black suits with the multi-coloured cotton flecks; or my shiny grey suit; or my bright pink linen jacket; or my smart blue jacket - which went so well with my banana yellow skin-tight trousers.

I often wore one of my stockbroker shirts or a nice cerise vest...

I was completely and utterly hooked on big shoulder pads. I was developing a very slight beer belly, and the pads detracted from this brilliantly.

All my clothes were cheap-and-cheerful- from the likes of C&A - there was some lovely... well, I suppose it might now be called "flash trash" around.

In the news, Manchester police chief James Anderton announced that God may be using him as a prophet.

There were several terrible tragedies in 1987 - the capsizing of the car-ferry Herald of Free Enterprise and the Hungerford killings to name but two.

In October, my attention was diverted north of the border as it seemed that Nessie was, at last, to be revealed. But she wasn't.

Swatch Phones and Others...

This is one of my favourite things - a Swatch phone, which has been described as "an icon of 80s design". Note the combination of grey and bright colours - how 80s can you get?!

A 1980s lamp and organiser...

... and a popular BT Tribune phone, released in 1987. The Trimphone, with its electronic warble, and the first push button phones, had arrived in the 1960s, but phones had rather stagnated in the cash-strapped 1970s and early 1980s. Many people stuck to traditional dial phones with a bell ring.

Dial phones remained widespread in the 1980s, but this was the decade of choice and many new models became available, as can be seen on this blog.

By the late 1980s, push button phones were taking centre stage and the electronic warble had all but taken over, but there was still a demand for bell ring phones. With the Tribune phone you had the choice, warble or bell models were available. When BT installed a Tribune phone in my flat in 1988, I was pleasantly surprised to find it had a bell ring. The warble has never appealed to me! The phone remains in use on my hall extension to this day.