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J. R. Hartley is a fictional character in a popular advertisement promoting the British Yellow Pages, first shown in 1983 when British Telecom was privatised. The ad shows an elderly gentleman (acted by Norman Lumsden) asking in several second hand bookshops for "Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley". No bookshop has it, and he goes home dejected. His daughter, sympathising, hands him the Yellow Pages; and one of the shops he phones has a copy. He is delighted. The unheard questioner asks for his name and he responds at dictation speed: 'My name? Oh, yes, it's J. R. Hartley.' The ad ends by promoting the Yellow Pages, the voiceover provided by actor Joss Ackland. In Britain's 2000 "Greatest TV Ads" poll, the advertisement was voted in the top 15.
Legacy
The author Michael Russell wrote and published Fly Fishing, Memories of Angling Days, by J. R. Hartley in 1991. The book was a best seller and led to two additional best sellers under the pseudonym J. R. Hartley: J.R. Hartley Casts Again-More Memories of Angling Days (1992) and Golfing by J. Hartley (1995). When Lumsden died on 28 November 2001 at the age of 95, the ad was broadcast again in his memory, nearly 20 years after its first appearance. In February 2011, Yellow Pages re-made the advert, with fictional DJ Day V. Lately searching for a copy of his trance remix Pulse and Thunder, which was released for sale at the same time.
