When Bet Lynch worked out that Stan Ogden must down about two thousand pints of Newton & Ridley’s ales in a year, she got Betty Turpin to ring the brewery and see if that was some sort of record. They replied that it wasn’t but nevertheless rep Mike Fielding came with a photographer to take pictures of Stan with a pint in his hand as newspaper publicity had been thin on the ground recently and they hoped to get some column inches with this story. Stan asked what his reward would be and was granted free beer for a week, supposedly starting that night but pushed to the following evening at Stan’s request as the night was almost over and he wouldn’t get the full benefit. Even Hilda was pleased - she wouldn’t have to give him as many spends if he was getting his booze for free.