I've edited your post, Jane Doe, so that the article you are quoting is a bit clearer to read - removing the captions to photographs which are not quoted, reformatting the text and so forth.
I can think of a few examples where the zoos celebrated founder(s) is no longer appreciated by the new management. It is a very sad situation, but it is a sign of times.
Glad you agree, I thought it could have been my suspicious mind, I wonder why this is the case as I can honestly see no valid reason for it whatsoever.
Actually, I didn't ask a question but thank you for "answering" anyway. In response, no I didn't know Molly Badham personally. Though I'm not sure what relevance that has to anything.
I appreciate you are totally against what Miss Badham and Miss Evans did regarding training of chimps and regard their work as totally wrong, as you are against anyone who has trained animals, you have a great admiration for Miss Redrobe, I am delighted to hear it, just a little less sarcasm please!
Two Faced or What Read this one people and yes you can say I am bitter and twisted but I dislike two faced people this is not what she put in the paper and this is not what she said on central I am like an elephant I never forget. unseen footage of our founders and chimps. January 7, 2015 On Tuesday 13 January at 8pm, Channel 5 will air a one-off documentary all about the chimpanzees at Twycross Zoo who were part of the famous Brooke Bond television adverts promoting PG Tips tea bags that ran for nearly twenty years from the 1960s to 1980s. The documentary features never seen before footage of the chimpanzees and the women who cared for them, Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans, who founded Twycross Zoo and helped establish it as a World Primate Centre. The programme includes interviews with former and current staff at Twycross Zoo, and writers and producers of some of the most well-known adverts including the “Mr Shifter” piano sequence that captured the nation’s heart. Twycross Zoo has now been in business for over 50 years thanks to the dedication of its founders and the continued efforts of the present team. The zoo cares for around 150 species of animals and is the only place in the UK to have every type of Great Ape (Gorilla, Orang-utan, Chimpanzee and Bonobo) – boasting one of the most diverse collections of gibbons in Europe and being the only British Zoo where visitors can see critically endangered bonobos. The documentary charts the nation’s fascination and adoration for the chimpanzees who featured in the adverts and is packed full of archive footage filmed at the zoo. Sharon Redrobe, CEO of Twycross Zoo, who features in the documentary says, “Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans were fundamental in establishing the principles of early modern management of primates in captivity. In recognising that once the infant chimpanzees grew to maturity and a different regime was required, they were able to focus on giving adult chimps a wholesome and stimulating environment away from television cameras.” Dr. Charlotte Macdonald, Head of Life Sciences who is also in the programme says, “It is clear from the documentary how much Molly and Nathalie loved their chimpanzees and Twycross Zoo works incredibly hard to maintain their legacy in its care and management of this species. Choppers, who features in the documentary, is one of the zoos remaining chimpanzees from the ‘tea chimps’ adverts. She has received dedicated training to ensure her integration into a natural chimp group structure, following retirement from television.” http://www.itv.com/news/central/2014-01-14/chimps-were-damaged-by-tv-adverts/
Certainly a different view of things since last year's Daily Mail article and television interview, glad to see that
This would be the Daily Mail article you refuse to quote, so we cannot judge for ourselves the tenor of their contents .........
The only such article I can find is the following one: Scarred by fame, the past PG Tips chimp: She stayed in five-star hotels and watched Westerns on TV. But now she struggles to live with her own kind | Daily Mail Online However, if this is indeed the article in question I struggle to see how it can be interpreted as smearing Badham's memory.
Here is another Choppers the chimp star of PG Tips commercials 'has become human' | Daily Mail Online Ms Redrobe can not even get the information right ask anyone that used to work there in the old days Choppers WAS NOT A PG TIPS CHIMP ask any of the old keepers and the Tipps family were the French and Italian chimps. She wants to do her research before speaking in public.
I have just had a thought if Ms Redrobe wants to get the chimps back to nature is she going to give them meat ?
I don't know about meat but I have just seen on their facebook page a picture of a primate keeper holding a popcorn making machine which has been donated off their "amazon wish list"
filming in the 1950/60's I'd say the chimps used would likely have been UK based as Brooke Bond wouldn't have paid to import chimps from France or Italy the rabies laws then would have needed 6 month quarantine - or the whole film company to film in france or italy and from the Brooke Bond Archives they were filmed in the UK ( - this quote from the collectables site is interesting: With the inauguration of independent television in Britain in September 1955, Brooke Bond became one of the early companies successfully to exploit the advertising possibilities of the new medium. The company had already achieved a high reputation for the quality of its advertising films, mainly documentaries based on the growing of tea. It was Bill Barter of Spottiswoods the advertising agents - whose chairman was R G Morris - who suggested that chimpanzees might be employed to make an amusing and unusual television commercial. The first advertisements appeared in 1956 at Christmastime. Chimps were associated with tea: over many years the 'chimps' tea party at London Zoo had been an unfailing attraction for children. The first two television commercials for Brooke Bond - 'Stately Homes' and the 'Chimps Tea Party' - were made by the Marquis troop of chimps trained for cabaret by Gene Detroy. A further series followed using chimps recruited from Billy Smart's circus. These commercials became tremendously popular, with voices provided by Peter Sellers, Bruce Forsyth and Bob Monkhouse. Soon the Brooke Bond chimps were in demand for public appearances. George Cansdale of the London Zoo enabled the company to discover the chimps owned and trained by Miss Molly Badham, and these began to make merchandising tours round the country, drawing huge crowds as they 'helped' to open supermarkets and new stores. On a more domestic occasion - a Brooke Bond staff party to mark Miss Lilian Bristow's retirement as advertising manager - Johny, Judy, Sam and Rosie proved most charming guests. Rosie, in particular, was found to have a feminine weakness for gin and orange, and almond icing. The Brooke Bond chimps certainly sold more tea. Their television commercials were carefully linked with point-of sale promotions in shops and stores. By 1957 the advertising budget was £680000 but this was more than offset by increased sales: the company could claim that one in every four families in Britain was drinking Brooke Bond tea. The chimps appeared live at Saturday morning film shows staged by the company's own projection units, which, during weekdays and evenings, showed documentaries to schools and women's and other institutes all over Britain. http://www.brookebondcollectables.co.uk/intro.htm) - data from those archives and other public sources also states that later chimps were from the USA after Twycross became a little nervous of the continued use and their growth to adulthood made filming impossible due to their strength more than anything. I'm interested to see if the documentary people approached Unilever for footage or quotes as there was a lot of speculation at the time the adverts changed that PG Tips bowed to public discomfort of the use of chimps but they always maintain that it was a branding decision.
Don't you have any concept that the media takes things and uses them the way they want which (in my experience of being involved in a news story) bears little resemblance to any subtleties you might have put into it. They have their story that they know will sell and bend the material accordingly. In response to previous comments I too have a long memory but would never moan about past statements without quoting them for the benefit of my audience (too much academic writing maybe). Yes I abhor trained apes but I have always given MB the benefit of the doubt because I believe she cared very much about her animals rather than seeing them as pure profit machines like I've seen e.g. with American entertainment chimps. As I said before I categorise her general behaviour toward them and its undoubted negative consequences as misguided and a product of the times rather than cruel misuse/abuse. I can't look at poor sweet Tommy without thinking something went badly wrong. You 'accuse' me of admiring Sharon Redrobe - well I am a supporter of Ape Action Africa so I do appreciate and admire the work she does in Cameroon. For the rest I take it on the basis of what I see and I don't see her demonising Molly as she is repeatedly accused of on here. I actually think anyone who took on the job of leading Twycross in the mess it was in must be bit crazy; I hope they succeed and bring the zoo into the 21st century and give all those lovely primates the home they truly deserve.
To be fair, the repeated criticism of Ms Redrobe does seem to come from only one or two people ..... And I think your post is an extremely good assessment of the situation. Molly Badham was super, but not without her faults.
Hi Orange person can I ask what do you mean by "I can't look at poor sweet Tommy without thinking something went badly wrong".
