The king of teacakes is one tough cookie

UDDINGSTON’S favourite sons, Tunnock’s, have found themselves at the centre of a storm in a teacake, after launching an advertising campaign in England which boasts about ‘the Great British Teacake’. The slogan is a play on The Great British Bake Off, but the new poster, minus t heir Scottish lion trademark, has got social media warriors fulminating about Scottish patriotism. It’s not clear if Tunnock’s have dropped the lion from all their packaging, or just the poster. Does Tu nno ck’ s intend to market itself as British outside Scotland in future, or is this a one-off? Above all: does it matter? I’ve been a fan of Tunnock’s and their jazzy retro wrappers since my tuck shop days, but I’ve never seen teacakes as a vital part of my cultural identity. It’s enough that the family firm is based here, and paying taxes.

Scottish and British, they have a fanbase that includes Coldplay and 70s band Sparks, as well as a parttime career in movies.

I first noticed Tunnock’s i n The Shipping News, where a snowball has a scene in bed with Kevin Spacey and Cate Blanchett – until Cate needs a coconut- covered energy boost, and devours it.

In a movie called The Crush, actresses Andie MacDowell, pictured, Anna Chancellor and Imelda Staunton compete against each other to win a teacake.

At the time, I remember phoning up Tunnock’s paterfamilias Boyd Tunnock to discover he was less than star-struck.

Boyd is not a huge movie f an. So when he was approached by the producers of The Shipping News producers, he thought Tunnock’s was being tapped to do something with the shipping reports on Radio 4.

The news was even worse for Four Weddings and a Funeral’s ageless Andie MacDowell: ‘I’m afraid I’ve never heard of him.’