Starred as "J R Hartley" in one of the most famous advertising campaigns in British television history (for Yellow Pages). The advert mentioned a fictitious book "Fly Fishing" by J R Hartley. So successful was the advertising campaign that bookshops were overwhelmed by people who wanted to order a copy. In 1991, nearly ten years after the advert was first shown, author Michael Russell wrote and published a book "Fly Fishing, Memories of Angling Days" using the pseudonym J R Hartley.
Although he was most famous for playing 'Fly Fishing' author J. R.
Hartley in the Yellow Pages ads, he didn't actually take up fishing
until he was 85.
