This heartwarming video may cause some sniffles! Based on the Heathrow Bear ad from last year (see video at end of post), this tells the story of how Doris and Edward Bear met in Christmas 1967 at London’s Heathrow airport when Doris returns Edward’s hat. It then follows their Heathrow reunions from then until now. Very sweet:
Having been a LHR airport user since 1968 when I first flew out on a BOAC Viscount VC10, many elements seem familiar!
Filmed in Heathrow Terminal One which opened in 1968, the year after the bears met in this ad! Poetic license is a nice thing! Terminal One was closed in June 2015 and is scheduled to be demolished next year to allow 380s access to the Northern runway. There are some great details such as historic Heathrow posters and Christmas trees in the background which are updated for each decade.
The ad features a Viscount VC10 similar to the ones I shuttled on between Africa and the UK in the late 1960s. It was one of the most beautiful planes I have ever flown on! It was a very quiet and comfortable plane for the time.
Set to Petula Clark’s song “I Couldn’t Live Without You“, you can spot Clark as a seated passenger at the 40-second mark.
The ad is great and I found it a sweet tearjerker. Sadly, the airport brings me to tears most times I use it. Heathrow is my tenth most used airport out of the 227 airports I have flown through. It is pretty awful with its endless corridors, poor terminal interchanges and endless immigration lines. Skytrax customers give the airport 4/10. On my rating scale, it gets 52%. This compares to Singapore Changi’s 100% in my books. My preferences are riding the Eurostar, flying into London City or travelling a regional British airport, if London is not the first point on my schedule.
Its transport links are pretty frustrating when you compare them to Paris CDG or Frankfurt or Schipol. Transport will improve when the Elizabeth line (Crosslink) opens. Central London stations will then be just under 40 minutes away from the airport. Now if we can just get more immigration officers staffing the desks so I can spend less than 90 minutes waiting to be seen, that will be a good day.
More info on the bears here and last year’s ad below:
The Verdict
A wonderful ad easy to relate to and full of nostalgia!
Happy holidays!
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