Today is April 28, and out of curiosity I checked to see if anything of historical significance had taken place on this day through the ages. The answer is... not a lot.
Perhaps the most exciting event on April 28, occurred 230 years ago in the South Pacific when, aboard the ill-fated Bounty, Fletcher Christian had finally had enough of Captain Bligh and stuck him and 18 of the crew on a 23-foot open boat, which 47 days later landed in Timor. Christian and the rest famously ended up in Pitcairn or Tahiti.
What became known as Mutiny on the Bounty was an epic tale of skullduggery on the high seas in 1789, although I admit my knowledge of events is highly coloured by the many movies the subject spawned. Three of them attracted big stars. As a kid I remember seeing on the BBC Christmas re-runs of the 1935 version starring Clark Gable as Christian. But the biggest impact was made by the splendid Charles Laughton as a very scary Bligh, creating an image which was described as "a byword for sadistic tyranny".
A 1984 version, The Bounty starring Anthony Hopkins as Bligh and Mel Gibson as Christian was reasonably well-received, but the most famous, primarily for the wrong reasons, was the 1962 production featuring Marlon Brando as Christian and Trevor Howard as Bligh.
The film was a financial flop and panned by critics, with most fingers pointing at Brando and his eccentric behaviour. Director Lewis Milestone, who had frequent run-ins with the uncooperative star, referred to the film as the Mutiny of Marlon Brando. An exasperated Howard called Brando "unprofessional and absolutely ridiculous", some scenes requiring 30 takes.
Often not knowing his lines, Brando ad-libbed his way through with a weird English upper-class accent, prompting one reviewer to complain that the star played Christian "as a sort of seagoing Hamlet". Despite all this, I found it quite entertaining, primarily because it is such a good yarn.
Anyway, in the unlikely prospect of ever being asked what happened on April 28th, you can surprise everyone.
Work, rest and play
Reading about Mutiny of the Bounty sparked a reminder of a childhood treat, Bounty, a chocolate bar with a coconut filling, advertised as "a taste of paradise". The name was most likely inspired by the mutiny, and its packaging features an enticing tropical lagoon and coconut palms. You can buy Bounty in some Bangkok supermarkets, but it is horrendously expensive, so I don't get tempted too often.
I should admit that I also succumb to the odd Mars bar. My mum rightly didn't like me eating these things, but allowed me the occasional indulgence after I pointed out the upbeat advertising slogan "A Mars a day, helps you work, rest and play".
Nut case
Apologies for the nostalgia, but this has sparked memories of confectionery commercials on television all those years ago.
Some involved considerable imagination. Cadbury's had a James Bond type, fighting off all sorts of unsavoury characters and fearlessly overcoming assorted terrifying physical dangers, before reaching his goal of a pretty woman (of course).
He then presents her with a box of Cadbury's chocolates, with the voice-over announcing smugly "And all because the lady loves Milk Tray".
More simple, but equally effective, was the ad for the fruit and nut chocolate bar which simply asked: "Are you a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut case?"
I was always vulnerable to Turkish Delight, a blob of gel which we were told was "full of Eastern promise".
As a teenager, I admit to being influenced by the ad which featured a slinky maiden rolling about on a Turkish carpet, offering her sweeties. It turned out later that the model was anything but "Eastern", and was actually the daughter of a Yorkshire miller.
Sweet story, full of holes
Most readers have probably tasted a Polo mint in their time. "The mint with a hole" is one of the most popular sweets in the world and in Britain alone an estimated 150 are consumed every second.
Selling a sweet on the basis of it having a big hole has always struck me as one of the great marketing coups of all time. They are basically selling an empty space. But it works. One reason the Polo mint caught on was that the hole made it a "fun" sweet, so you could play with it. You can stick your tongue in the hole and wiggle it around and perform fancy tricks with the mint in your mouth if you are so inclined.
My excuse is that when you are stuck in a Bangkok traffic jam, you sometimes have to resort to desperate measures to pass the time.
Mum's the word
Another catchy confectionery commercial from that era was for Rowntree's fruit gums. It featured a kid looking out of the window of his home as his mum went off shopping and had the lad saying "Don't forget the fruit gums mum."
Quite ridiculously, some years later, political correctness moved in. They had to change "mum" to "chum", because mothers were allegedly being nagged by the children to buy the sweets.
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