The British Telecom "’ology" advert was a short television commercial from the 1980s that starred actress Maureen Lipman. In it, she played a grandmother called Beattie who encouraged her grandson after he failed most of his exams but passed in sociology. Her witty and warm delivery made the advert instantly memorable and it became one of the most famous British ads of its time. The character of Beattie was not originally written as a grandmother. Early drafts described her as a generic older re