Girl on the platform’s smile

Those of you in the UK will probably have seen the advert that has been running recently for the internet dating site match.com, featuring the “man with the ukelele” and the “girl on the platform”. It’s quite a sweet advert, as chappie spies a girl sitting on the opposite platform and starts to sing a little ditty he makes up which charms the girl into eventually coming over and making his acquaintance. Of course, as I noted someone had said in reference to it, it doesn’t do match.com a whole lot of good, as it suggests that relationships can be formed without their help (as long as you carry a ukelele). The advert itself was apparently filmed at Sutton, a railway station firmly within the area of the Southern Region; when the advert first started, I noted that the colour scheme of the platform signs (a deep green) suggested it was a station operated by Southern, further indicated by a sign behind chappie giving an indication of trains towards Brighton.

Trains towards Brighton

And of course that might have been an end to it. Except that now there is a longer version that sees Chappie speculate where his new friend might be going on the train – Hull? Leeds? Wigan? Interesting – presumably the chap that wrote the ditty needed something to rhyme with “beautiful beguiling eyes”, which is why they needed somewhere that makes pies (). Then of course there is the continuity of the arriving train – a train pulls in front of Chappie causing him to lose sight of the girl and leading him to think he’s missed his chance, but of course it all turns out alright in the end. But the train in the wide shot appears to be a Class 455, but then in the close-up is a Class 377. Nitpicking? Maybe, and I know that there is more time and budget pressure in making an advert. I also know that Joe bloggs watching it probably wouldn’t notice. Oh well. It’s all very Brief Encounter, but with the benefit of an apparently happy ending. Judge for yourself.