"Archie"

30 January 2025

40s

Archie at large.

With the BBC licence fee about to go up from £169.50 to £174.50 and uncertainty about its future, the TVL brand has work to do if it wants people onside before April 1. It gets to it with a commercial starring Marc Warren ('Van der Valk'), Rosie Day ('Outlander'), and Tim McInnerny ('Blackadder') that claims "nothing brings people together like good TV".

Warren plays Archie, a shady geezer who spots a well-off gentleman (McInnerny) and his daughter (Day). Is he about to rob the pair blind with those filthy mitts of his? Of course not—he just wants to recommend a newfangled show full of "double-crossings and murders" called 'The Traitors'. It might just take the nineteenth century by storm.

The three then sit down to watch it on what must be the only television in England. The situation's a lot more complicated in 2025 (what would Isambard Kingdom Brunel make of the iPlayer?), which raises the stakes for ads like these.

UK

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