Ooh prawn cocktail! Hilarious moment amazed Brits try new ‘exotic’ flavoured crisps for the first time in 1981 BBC archive clip from Esther Rantzen’s That’s Life

• Reporter Paul Heiney took the streets to give Britons blind taste tests

From the humble salt and vinegar and cheese and onion to the more exotic flame grilled steak and Thai sweet chili, there has never been more choice for crisp lovers.

But, back in the 1970s, when new crisp flavours were becoming more popular after decades of just having salted as an option, many Britons were still unfamiliar with the new world.

This fact was hilariously demonstrated when, in 1981, BBC programme That’s Life – presented by Esther Rantzen – took to the streets to subject people to blind taste tests.

One woman was astonished when a flavour she thought was salt and vinegar turned out to be prawn cocktail.

Another refused to believe that the flavour she had tried wasn’t cheese and onion and told reporter Paul Heiney: ‘Who are you kidding? I’m a Geordie man, you English can’t kid me!’

The clip recently resurfaced on social media, prompting dozens of comments from viewers.   

In 1981, BBC Programme That’s Life took to the streets to subject Britons to blind taste tests of crisp flavours

The programme was presented by Dame Esther Rantzen for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994

The segment begins with Dame Esther, who is now 83 and has recently spoken of her battle stage four lung cancer, saying: ‘Have you noticed how exotic the humble crisp has become? 

‘Once it was plain and then it was salted and now they have the most extraordinary flavours. Gammon, prawn cocktail, pickled onion, the lot.’ 

The clip then shifts to a street, where a crowd of Britons are seen watching as one woman tries a flavour.  

Unable to tell what it is, she says: ‘They’re a bit fishy’. When told they are bacon flavour, her eyes widen as she adds: ‘Never!’

She gives the same exclamation of surprise when unable to distinguish the chicken flavour crisps.

The woman says defiantly: ‘They don’t taste like the chicken I do! It’s not coq a vin is it!’ 

The clip then moves onto a man in a cap who crunches on another flavour and then cheekily tells the presenter: ‘If you tell me what it is, I’ll confirm it’

When trying the next mystery flavour, she screws up her face in reaction to the taste and says: ‘There’s more vinegar, that’s salt and vinegar isn’t it?’

But, told it is actually prawn cocktail by Heiney, her eyes widen again.

Turning to her companion, she shouts: ‘Ooh, prawn cocktail!’ 

The clip then moves onto a man in a cap who crunches on another flavour and then cheekily tells the presenter: ‘If you tell me what it is, I’ll confirm it’. 

When Heiney gives him a clue by saying it ‘flaps its wings’, the man jokes: ‘Butterfly?’

The reporter then tells him it was chicken, before giving him a final flavour to try.

Having tasted it, the man says: ‘My goodness, that’s really sharp isn’t it?’

Heiney tells him: ‘That one hasn’t got any legs at all.’

Still stumped, the man jokes: ‘It’s not snake is it?’

The clip then moves on to a woman in a headscarf who icily asks before trying the crisps: ‘What muck have you got in them?’

The clip then moves on to a woman in a headscarf who icily asks before trying the crisps: ‘What muck have you got in them?’

When she does try a flavour, she insists it is cheese and onion.

When Heiney tells her she is wrong and asks her why she thinks she is right, she insists: ‘Because they are cheese and onion.’

Heiney hits back: ‘They’re not.’ This prompts the woman to defiantly say: ‘I know what I’m eating love!’

He then tells her they are pickled onion, before getting the woman to try another flavour.

Having nibbled on the crisp, she says: ‘They’re the same bloody things!’

But Heiney has more bad news, telling her: ‘They’re plain!’

The woman hits back: ‘Who are you kidding? I’m a Geordie man, you English can’t kid me!’

She then tries a third flavour and insists they are salt and vinegar. 

After being told she is wrong, the woman says: ‘Who are you kidding? I’m a Geordie man, you English can’t kid me!’

Heiney tells her: ‘You’re wrong again!’

The woman then says that a fourth and final flavour are plain, prompting Heiney to reveal they are chicken.  

‘It’s like your bleeding bat soup innit,’ she says, before walking off. 

The first flavoured crisp was introduced in the late 1950s, when Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy, the owner of Irish firm Tato, developed a way of adding cheese and onion seasoning during production.

Salt and vinegar crisps were then launched in the UK in 1967. 

Dozens of crisp brands now compete to provide the most distinctive flavours.  

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