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Trimphone impersonators

Pheep! Pheep!You can still get the stylish ‘straight-down-the-middle hanset’ phones themselves from various specialist outlets, but not so those middle-aged men and women who appeared on the likes of Nationwide and That’s Life! to demonstrate how to imitate that distinctive ring. It’s a combination of whistling through your teeth and blowing a raspberry, should you care to give it a go.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. paulus

    May 30, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    The throttled sound of a praying mantis trying to attract a female to eat his head whilst copulating. I think it must have turned ‘dear Ester’ on!

    Nary a week went by without somebody being on “that’s life” doing their version…. shite!
    On the off weeks we had talking dogs! Sausages… my arse! You could see the throat jockey working his poor mutt’s larynx.

  2. Lee James Turnock

    July 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    We had a trimphone exactly like the one in the picture. Seems odd that I’m boasting about that!

  3. Richard Davies

    August 10, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    According to my Mum one problem with the trimphone was the ring was not as loud as the one from the old style bell ringing phones, meaning it was hard to hear one ringing from more than a room away.

  4. wilberforce

    August 12, 2010 at 11:50 pm

    i used to know a guy that did loads of impressions (he claimed he had over 50 in his repertoire), ranging from the oft-imitated sports commentators such as Richie Benaud and Ted Lowe to more esoteric stuff such as Dangermouse’s nemesis Baron Greenback. But perhaps the most bizarre was his spot-on trimphone – i bet he still does it as a party-piece even now…

  5. RiotSloth

    May 19, 2013 at 4:07 pm

    Of course, perhaps the most famous Trimphone imitator is a personal hero of mine, Ed Reardon…

  6. Tom Ronson

    November 13, 2022 at 4:02 am

    The headmaster of my junior school was sufficiently impressed by my trimphone impersonation to order me up on the stage and perform it in front of the whole school. This was only marginally less embarrassing than having to stand on a couple of desks pushed together at some parents’ evening whilst wearing 19th century nightgowns with Laura Brown (aged seven) and recite that soppy ‘Christopher Robin is saying his prayers’ poem.

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