Ahoy sailor! There’s a new captain in town. 56-year-old Italian actor Riccardo Acerbi, who you probably don’t recognise from Italian TV movie Il Diavole E L’acqua Santa, is now fronting Birds Eye’s new£8m advertising campaign.
And with his George Clooney salt-and-pepper beard and good looks, he seems to be leaving the ladies needing more than a frozen multipack of fish fingers to cool them down under the collar.
Acerbi won the part after what Birds Eye said was “a rigorous audition process” and he impressed with his “genuine approach to portraying The Captain and his love of the sea”. He replaces the original captain, John Hewer, who sailed the frozen seas from 1967 to 1998.
A new younger 31-year-old captain, Thomas Pescod, took on the role in 1998 but was dropped after the new image flopped. The Cap’n was then brought back in his fatter, jollier, form by 68-year-old retired fishery worker Mitch Commins in 2016, before being replaced by the new, dashier, Italian Captain this week.
Many Twitter users are applauding TV’s latest fishy eye-candy.
“Well helloooooooo new Captain Birds Eye *pretends to drown*”, tweets @guypewsey.
“This new devilishly handsome silver fox Captain Birds Eye could batter me or roll me in breadcrumbs any day of the week and twice on a Sunday,” tweets @LouiseFreda.
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Some Twitter users are wondering if perhaps Riccardo Acerbi is perhaps another actor in disguise.
“The new Captain Birds Eye was created by putting @fredsirieix1 off First Dates without anyone realising @adambuxton was already in it,” tweets @MattOakleyMojo.
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And some people are a little upset that, post-Brexit, the role went to an Italian.
“WTF, we don’t want bloody Italians in OUR fishing grounds catching OUR fish. I thought we voted for Brexit!” tweets @scuzz_le_butt.
Watch the new Birds Eye advert here to make up your own mind on who’s the dish of the day – the fish fingers or the man who’s fishing them for our tea.