At last, we have confirmation - those people at Leagas Shafron
Davis are sick.
In the past, staffers have obtained the number of a public telephone box
close to their Tottenham Court Road offices and used it to embarrass
people by calling and pretending they were Virgin Radio DJs (Diary, 14
June 1996).
It’s obvious that, once again, the agency hasn’t been on a pitch-list
for a while as, last week, five staffers set about organising a
disturbance. Jane Briers, Dave Davies and Dave Cornmell were recruits to
the original joking team of Rob Jebb and Aiden Hawkes.
Jebb and Hawkes are famous for practical jokes around the agency and
came up with the phone box gag. This time they thought it would be more
fun to scare the wits out of innocent pedestrians.
An almost life-size stuffed doll was duly made (Have these people
nothing better to do? - Ed) and propped against a tenth floor window.
Davies proceeded to argue furiously with the ’man’ much to the
bemusement of onlookers.
Things moved on a stage when the now hysterical Davies threw the ’body’
out of the window, giving passers-by a view of what looked like a body
plummeting on to a shop roof.
Local police took 12 calls from worried people and subsequently lingered
in the agency’s reception for a not inconsiderable period.
There is an even more sorrowful end to the tale. On the seventh floor of
the building, a woman conducting a job interview glanced over the
shoulder of the interviewee to see the ’body’ plunge past her window.
Overcome with shock, she was sent home and we are unsure whether the
interviewee got the job - or still wants it.
