Best of English bus stop

 

On Monday night I just could not get to sleep, and at 5.45 on Tuesday morning I was up and staring out of my living room window when an Adshel van pulled up at the bus stop over the road to change the advertising poster. Yes, I take photos of strangers at night without their knowledge or consent...

I walked past today, and it's a new campaign for Bombardier beer. They're trying to make themselves the drink of St, George's Day (like Guinness is for St. Patrick's), and the poster features icons of Englishness.

 

So we have Henry VIII wearing rugby kit, holding a conker, one foot on a wheel of Stilton; and the late, sorely missed Eric Morecambe dressed as a Morris man, with a Punk-style leather jacket, making Churchill's 'V for victory' sign with one foot on a policeman's helmet. They are standing on a big Cornish pasty and above the pint of beer is a red letterbox with a miner's helmet on top of it and a robin sat on top of that. On either side are garden gnomes with fishing rods - one has a Rich Tea biscuit on the end of it, the other a Custard Cream.

I've Googled in vain to find out who's done this artwork - have emailed Bombardier so watch this space! It's the work of artist David Lawrence. who has a cracking website. He's produced three posters, here are the other two:

This one has Queen Victoria dressed as Robin Hood and Les Dawson dressed as Queen Elizabeth I, standing on the Isle of Wight (inculding the Needles lighthouse). She holds a rolled-up umbrella and has one foot on a teapot, and he holds a cup of tea and rests a foot on a pork pie. Next to him is an English bulldog with a string of bangers in its mouth.

Here's Winston Churchill dressed as one of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and holding a '99' ice-cream cone, with one foot on a rugby ball. He's standing in Stonehenge with Kenneth Williams dressed as Sherlock Holmes, holding a cricket bat, with one foot on a jar of strawberry jam and, I think, wearing sandals with socks (and I thought that was just Christians...). Above them are red squirrels eating acorns from oak branches. Behind the beer bottle a pantomime horse can be seen. Cheers!