Was the Force with you?

 

Those of a certain age will surely identify with Nigel Slater's food-focused reminiscence of his lower middle-class childhood in the 1960s/70s (Toast, 2003). While parts of the book contain "too much information" about his growing up, many of the descriptions of mealtimes are immediately familiar. Sitting at the breakfast table reading cereal packets, wondering at the mysteries of Riboflavin or Niacin, set you up for a day of learning ahead. Sometimes it was an opportunity to merely hide behind the packet. Cereal packets were quite tall to a small child. If families even sit together for breakfast today, the chances are that many are instead disappearing into the alternative reality of their smartphones. The Mael brothers, Ron and Russell, whose perennial career as band Sparks began in 1967 and continues even now, summed up today's sorry scenario in their 2021 song 'iPhone':

"Adam said to Eve … shall we take a walk, shall we have small couples type of talk? It appears that I’m not much getting through. It appears that you’ve something else to do… Put your f…..g iPhone down and listen to me [repeat]. Listen to me".

Simpler times were the times of Sunny Jim. But I wonder how many now would have heard of him. A morose cartoon character, Jimmy Dumps initially advertised Force Wheat Flakes from 1901, but metamorphosed into Sunny Jim upon eating the cereal. First manufactured in the USA, Force became more popular in Britain, and in the end only sold here. Likewise Sparks found a substantial fan-base this side of the Atlantic, helped maybe by describing themselves as "Anglophiles" [sic.] early on. Songs such as "Now that I own the BBC" and "Lawnmower" (citing Andover of all places) have closer resonance here.

A personal link for me in the 1960s/70s was the location of a marketing campaign for Force Wheat Flakes, under the banner "Sunny Jim's Excursions", at the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in the English Lake District (along with other heritage lines) with which I was familiar at the time. It had limited success, being exposed to a very narrow (gauge) market (ouch). It continued to be sold in Sainsbury and Waitrose until axed in 2013. Seemingly they had both ends of the class spectrum in the customer demographic covered, but that wasn't enough.

 
Marketing support had however diminished even in Jim's heyday in the 1930s. If only they had still used his jaunty song "High o'er the fence leaps Sunny Jim, Force is the food that raises him". Indeed, I too need some sort of friendly force to help me over styles and fences today, as my walking companions and partner will testify, as I'm certainly not leaping o'er them. Some years ago I was given a gift of a Sunny Jim rag doll, to a design dating back to 1905, still collectable today. Maybe not hugely collectable, as many seem to have found their way onto auction websites. The Force has gone but Sunny Jim and Sparks are still with us.

This Sunny Jim is described as a cotton doll of a white male from the nineteenth century, dressed in a red swallow-tail coat, white trousers, and black cap. His white hair curves upward at the back. He has a monocle and carries a box of Force. I don't suppose the style will have a revival anytime soon.

I didn't realise at the time, but clearly something was missing from my life around 2013 when the cereal was axed. The Force had moved me. Did I move west in search of the Land of Sunny Jim? I got no further than the eastern edge of the Irish Sea.

Force. More than a cereal. More than a feeling. Part of the culture. Knowing Sparks' eccentric oeuvre, I write this blog to them suggesting they pen a tribute song. Indeed, I can imagine Ron's deadpan expression while dressed as Sunny Jim. 
May the Force still be with us.

LINKS

Nigel Slater - Toast

(1) Sparks - iPhone (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Sunny Jim - Wikipedia