BT - It's good to talk.

I remember in the eighties, I think, an advert on t.v. that has stayed with me ever since, and I really don't know why.
A Gran-like person looking at the clock, and seeing it was late, makes herself a cup of cocoa and settles in a chair, looking at her phone.
On the opposite side of the world a little boy, in America, perhaps about seven or eight ends his school day to the sound of a school bell, and runs for his bus.
Advert cuts back to old lady , alone and watching clock.
Cuts back to boy getting off bus and running home.
Cuts now to Gran, looking at clock and saying "oh" and picking up and dialing a number.
Cuts back to little boy running up his drive and you hear his phone ringing.
And Gran is sitting with her phone pressed against her ear.
Boy runs into house and grabs phone,
Gran says "Hello Billy"
Billy says "Hello Granma"
For some reason that advert has stuck with me forever, I always thought it was so impossibly sad. I think it was part of B.T.s "it's good to talk" campaign.
Sadly now I realise that is what it will be like with my children and their nanny and grandad.