Nigel Blackwell and the BP Advert, 2001
Kevin Sampson’s 2001 Guardian article about Half Man Half Biscuit gets straight into the tale:
“It has been mayhem – there have been schedules to adhere to, studio dates and at least two live gigs to accommodate, and voice-overs to record. That is thanks to Mark Cooper, a “creative” at swanky ad agency Ogilvy and Mather. It is he who conceived the concept, and the voice, of the current BP ad. And the voice he chose was not that of Martin Clunes. Nor John Peel, nor Suggs, Jo Whiley, Johnny Vaughan, nor anyone else from the ranks of creatives’ faves. The deadpan and slightly morose voice-over on one of the year’s slickest and most expensive TV ads is that of Nigel Blackwell, the singer out of Half Man Half Biscuit.
“It appealed to my sense of the absurd,” says Blackwell, a strapping 36-year-old who is more Jaap Stam these days than the crusty punk of yore. Absurdity is of paramount importance to chaps such as Nigel, one of thousands born into a new strand in the early 60s, the upper working class. Young newlyweds all over the UK were encouraged to buy starter homes on large estates – think Thelma and Bob in The Likely Lads – and their children, far from being groomed for an apprenticeship in a time-served trade, were more often encouraged to read and take school seriously. Which did not exclude television – their young were exposed to the wiles of Monty Python and The Goodies. Blackwell grew up in the Holmlands area of Birkenhead, a vast development of “bought” semis that is still growing exponentially today. And here he is voicing an advert for BP. “It’s one of those where it’s so easy not to do it that you end up quite liking the perversity of the idea,” says Blackwell.”
To those who can’t quite believe the BP advert ever happened, fortunately, nearly twenty years later, YouTube has popped up with the goods. Enjoy.
✉ Letters Sent (10)
Skip to the most recent comment
(2 years ago by Mattl)
dr desperate
Tremendous work! Step forward, Nathan Dockray (if you’re here).
6 August 2020
TRANSIT FULL OF keith
Very professionally delivered, he could have been the new Mariella Frostrup. Thank God he wasn’t.
6 August 2020
exxo
Wonderfuel. Completism feels slightly more complete. Well in Nathan.
How apt too that it’s an ad for the shops attached to the BP fuel stations, and given that the 24-hour garage of the song is a Shell (often mentioned in live performances), how apt that the ad was for one of their rivals. One notes too that the brand was sold in the UK in 2007 but still exists as 24-hour garage shops in New Zealand.
Of all the moments in the canon of recorded works, I suppose it is inevitable that it feels closest to the following moments: Hadleigh, Canterbury Spar and lime green Dyson, all of whom missed a trick.
8 August 2020
Sera6969
This was worth logging back on for!
14 August 2020
RJP
Video unavailable
This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been closed.
10 November 2020
Chris The Siteowner
Oh bother, I hope it turns up again, or someone made a copy. I didn’t think to, unfortunately. I did however find an audio-only recording online of a DIFFERENT VERSION…
10 November 2020
Chris The Siteowner
Update: another copy spotted. Thanks for the find, Karen.
10 November 2020
dr DEsperate
That woman’s “terrible sense of direction” wouldn’t have been helped by the bp connect map directing her from Cambridge to Cardiff via the M11 – I’m sure Nigel would have advised the A14/A46/M5/M4 route, taking 15 miles off her Mileage Chart.
24 January 2025
EXXO
Stop wait a minute Mr. Spokesman, we don’t know what he thinks. I’d go whatever was quickest at that time, so right now A14, M6, M42, M50, A40. 3 hours 42. Some good services at the half-way point too.
24 January 2025
MATTL
I archived it here if this ever gets taken down.
https://archive.org/details/nigel-blackwells-2001-bp-advert-voice-over-half-man-half-biscuit
24 January 2025