Babycham
Encyclopedia
Perry
Perry is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears. Perry has been common for centuries in Britain, particularly in the Three Counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and in parts of south Wales; and France, especially Normandy and Anjou.In more recent years, commercial...
invented by Francis Edwin Showering (1912-1995), a brewer in Shepton Mallet
Shepton Mallet
Shepton Mallet is a small rural town and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset in South West England. Situated approximately south of Bristol and east of Wells, the town is estimated to have a population of 9,700. It contains the administrative headquarters of Mendip District Council...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England; the name is now owned by Constellation Europe Limited. Launched in the United Kingdom in 1953, the drink was marketed with pioneering television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertisements to appeal specifically to women. It was the first alcoholic product to be advertised on UK television, the campaign being launched in 1957, and was originally marketed as a "genuine champagne perry".
Popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the brand's appeal waned with the rise of cheaply available alternatives and a tightening up of the regulations governing alcohol advertising
Alcohol advertising
Alcohol advertising is the promotion of alcoholic beverages by alcohol producers through a variety of media. Along with tobacco advertising, it is one of the most highly-regulated forms of marketing...
on television. 1996 saw a major relaunch of the brand and the reintroduction of the fawn mascot, a giant model of which can be seen outside the Shepton Mallet factory where the drink is produced. 1997 saw the reintroduction of Babycham Babe beauty contests that had been popular in the 1960s. The 'Babycham' logo was designed and created by CDP (Collett Dickenson and Pearce) who were a well know advertising company in London. John Emperor was the creator of this iconic design.
Babycham in the media
Possibly indicative of its status at the time, it appeared as the butt of many jokes in the 1993 BBC comedy series The Smell of Reeves and MortimerThe Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer was a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer. Its first series appeared in 1993 following the duo's move to the BBC after parting company with Channel 4...
, suggesting that it was a suitable drink for babies.
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
's character in Prizzi's Honor
Prizzi's Honor
Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by John Huston. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.The film was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel of the same name...
orders a Babycham, to the complete befuddlement of the bartender.
In The Young Ones
The Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
1982 episode, "Boring
Boring (Young Ones episode)
Boring was the third episode of The Young Ones, a British sitcom. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson. It was first aired on BBC2 on 23 November 1982....
", Vyvyan Basterd (Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...
) orders a Babycham – "Uh, mine's a Babycham" – from his mum who is bartending at a pub. In the 1984 "Summer Holiday
Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner...
" episode of the same BBC comedy series, Vyvyan attests that a pint of Babycham and he's anybody's. In the 1984 episode "Bambi
Bambi (Young Ones episode)
"Bambi" was the seventh episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 8 May 1984...
", Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
played a University Challenge
University Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
presenter who, in addition to the Disney film and a video nasty
Video nasty
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...
sequel, had done the Babycham commercials, and is asked by Neil, "Do you really think they make it out of babies?".
Parody hard rock band Bad News
Bad News
Bad News were a spoof rock band, created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were Vim Fuego , vocals and lead guitar ; Den Dennis, rhythm guitar ; Colin Grigson, bass ; and Spider Webb, drums .-Biography:Bad News made their television debut during...
refer to the drink in their song "Drink Till I Die" - "I get up in the morning, drink a bottle of gin / Forty pints of lager and a Babycham"
A series of Babycham television spots featuring choreographer Charles Augins
Charles Augins
Charles Augins is an American actor, dancer and choreographer for stage and screen. Born in Virginia he won the Laurence Olivier Theater award in 1991 for Best Choreography in Five Guys Named Moe. He had a small role in Revenge of the Pink Panther as Vic Vancouver. He is best known for playing...
, best known for his role as "back-up" computer Queeg 500 in the Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
episode "Queeg
Queeg (Red Dwarf episode)
"Queeg" is the fifth episode of science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf series two and the eleventh in the series run. It premiered on the British television channel BBC2 on 4 October 1988. Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, and directed by Ed Bye, the plot features a backup computer named Queeg that...
", have reference made to them in the 1988 film The Firm
The Firm (1988 film)
The Firm is a 1989 British drama film directed by Alan Clarke and written by Al Ashton for the BBC, starring Gary Oldman as Clive 'Bex' or 'Bexy' Bissel. The film is based on the activities of the Inter City Firm, football firm of West Ham United during the 1970s and 1980s although in the film the...
(directed by Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
): a football hooligan jokingly tells his friend who is ordering drinks at the bar "Hey, I'll have a Babycham". The drink also featured in a dance hall
Dance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub...
scene in the Reggae film The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell.The film stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based on Rhyging, a real-life Jamaican criminal who achieved fame in the 1940s...
.
Babycham is mentioned in the 1979 track "Saturday's Kids" by mod-revival band The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
.
In Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan
Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
's 2005 film Breakfast on Pluto
Breakfast on Pluto (film)
Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 comedy-drama film directed by Neil Jordan and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe...
, in Segment 20, "A Fairy Tale," Kitten (Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and distinctive blue eyes and general sex appeal....
) orders a Babycham in a London pub.
In the Lancashire Hotpots song "Bitter, Lager, Cider, Ale, Stout", they declare that "Babycham [is] for your sister".
In the BBC comedy Hi-de-Hi!
Hi-de-Hi!
Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom that aired on the BBC from 1980-1988. It was set in a holiday camp during the 1950s and 1960s and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had written Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The title was the phrase used to greet the campers and in early episodes...
, Babycham is the 'usual' of chief yellowcoat Gladys Pugh (Ruth Madoc
Ruth Madoc
Ruth Madoc is a British actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Gladys Pugh in the 1980s BBC television comedy Hi-de-Hi!, and as Daffyd Thomas's mother in the second series of Little Britain.-Early life:...
).
The band Babyshambles
Babyshambles
Babyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty during a hiatus from his former band The Libertines, but Babyshambles has since become his main project . Babyshambles has released two albums, three EPs and a number of singles...
derive their name from this drink.
Babycham is mentioned by the actor Terence Stamp in the film: The Limey