Lovely Jubbly! David Jason is voted nation’s favourite long lasting celebrity

T-Mobile reveals the old favourites with a firm place in the nation’s hearts

15 May 2008, London, UK. We all wish that the good things in life could last longer “ so those things that do last a long time should be celebrated. That’s according to T-Mobile, who today reveals the nation’s favourite long lasting personalities, TV programmes and traditions.

The research, carried out to celebrate the launch of T-Mobile’s Top Up & Stretch offer which makes top ups last longer, reveals Sir David Jason, Barbara Windsor, Doctor Who and the Sunday roast to be among the UK’s favourite long lasting icons. Of those things people wish had lasted longer, the BBC’s short-lived Spanish soap, Eldorado, gets a surprising mention, with one in ten (11 %) wishing it was still on our screens.

Securing over a quarter of votes (27 %), Britain’s favourite enduring celebrity is Sir David Jason, famous for his roles as Del Boy Trotter and Inspector Frost. He is followed in second and third place by TV presenters Michael Parkinson and Sir Terry Wogan, respectively. A surprising favourite amongst 18-24 year olds is EastEnders’ Barbara Windsor, who rose to fame in the Carry On films, 20 years before her admirers were born. Likewise, the biggest supporters of Sir Paul McCartney weren’t original fans of The Beatles, but a new group of 25-34 year old admirers.

When it comes to celebrity couples who have lasted longer, Lenny Henry and Dawn French are overall favourites with more than a fifth (21 %) of the votes. Second place is shared between Richard and Judy and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, both beating A-listers Posh and Becks, who only received nine per cent of the votes. The Welsh, however, stayed loyal to local girl Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas, making them their second choice after Lenny and Dawn.

Match of the Day is the nation’s favourite long lasting TV programme “ unsurprisingly most of the votes coming from men “ with over a third voting it as their favourite. Second place was jointly awarded to revived classic, Doctor Who (14 %), and the long running Antiques Roadshow (14 %). When it comes to women’s favourite, however, Antiques Roadshow is the top choice, with 18 % voting it as their number one.

The research also investigated the nation’s favourite long lasting British traditions, with the Sunday roast voted by far the favourite, winning over a quarter (28 %) of the votes. The second place nomination, however, shows a large North-South divide. Whilst the South of the country names the Royal Family as its second favourite long lasting tradition, Northerners and Scots showed the way to their hearts is through their stomachs by choosing fish and chips.

When it comes to things the nation wishes had lasted longer, the most popular is leisure time and money, with more than two-thirds (69 %) of people wishing their holidays would last longer, followed by 60 % who would like their monthly salary to stretch further. Likewise it seems the phrase school days are the best time of your life rings true, with 43 % of the nation longing to return to the classroom. TV programmes from the past are also close to the nation’s heart, with 11% wishing the BBC’s Spain-based soap Eldorado had lasted longer on our screens, and almost one third (32 %) hankering after the return of 80s favourite The A Team.

Chris Barrow, head of pre-pay at T-Mobile said: At T-Mobile we like things that last longer, that’s why we’ve created Top Up & Stretch “ to give our pay as you go customers great value, by making their top ups last longer. All our customers need to do is opt in by texting Stretch to 441, top up by £10 between Monday and Friday and they will receive an extra £10 credit to spend at the weekend “ for texts, calls and picture messages to any UK mobile and most landlines.

Rank	Celebrity	Celebrity Couple	TV Programme	British Tradition	Should have lasted longer
1	Sir David Jason	Lenny Henry & Dawn French	Match of The Day	Sunday roast	Holidays
2	Michael Parkinson	Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne	Antiques Roadshow	The Royal Family	Monthly salary
3	Sir Terry Wogan	Richard Madeley & Judy Finnigan	Doctor Who	Fish and chips	Weekends
4	Sir Trevor McDonald	David & Victoria Beckham	Watchdog	Cricket	School days
5	Bruce Forsyth	Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones	Countdown	Red post boxes	The Beatles
6	Sir Paul McCartney	Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn	Songs of Praise	Oxford & Cambridge boat race	Elvis
7	Sir Cliff Richard	Bill & Hilary Clinton	Newsround	Double-decker bus	England football team in Euro ˜08
8	Barbara Windsor	Tony & Cherie Blair	EastEnders	The London Beefeaters	The A-Team
9	Cilla Black	Elton John & David Furnish	Blue Peter	Black Taxi	Dallas
10	Delia Smith	Paul Daniels & Debbie McGee	Grandstand	The Women’s Institute	Eldorado

- Ends -

Notes to editors

§ Top Up & Stretch allows new and existing T-Mobile customers who top up by £10 between Monday and Friday and have opted in to the promotion, to receive an extra £10 credit to spend during that weekend on calls, texts and picture messages.

§ Research was conducted in April 2008 by ICM Omnibus. A sample of 1,000 adults in Great Britain was surveyed, with data subsequently weighted to the known profile of this population.

Contacts:

T-Mobile Press Line +44 (0) 7017 150 150

Brands2Life +44 (0) 207 592 1200

About T-Mobile UK

T-Mobile is one of the world’s largest mobile operators with more than 123 million customers worldwide and is the service provider of choice for 17.1 million customers in the UK, making it one of the largest networks. T-Mobile has a range of innovative products and services such as Flext, a unique tariff with a flexible allowance; U-Fix, a tariff that combines pay-as-you-go and a monthly contract and web'n'walk, which enables customers to surf the internet on the move. Competitive high-speed Mobile Broadband tariffs include access to the largest worldwide Wi-Fi network, with more than 1,000 HotSpots in convenient locations in the UK and 27,000 worldwide. Network coverage is among the best in the UK at over 99 per cent of the UK population. T-Mobile operates an advanced 3G HSDPA-enabled network capable of supporting mobile broadband speeds of up 3.6mb per second, rising to 7.2 in the summer of 2008.

For more information about T-Mobile UK, please visit www.t-mobile.co.uk