A FISTFULL OF FLAVOUR

The above was the slogan for a Watneys Red Barrel beer commercial of about 1960 - funny how these things stick.  Sailors were symbols of freedom, carefree, jollity.  Talking of stock characters, they were useful on two levels.  'Round the Horne's' Julian and Sandy were, to the kiddies, simply funny people - camp, but children didn't know about that sort of thing.  Funny how downright filthy that show was, on listening again, but in code.  ?Magic Roundabout's Dylan?  Forget about secret drug messages, the beatnik, coffe bars, reefers, maybe even sex, was another stock character.  As for Dougal's trip into the land of sugar lumps, well, the writers had to write and the references were in the air.  Anyway, the advert was a stimulus for a sequence, some fun.  First Class Beer! (as per final line)