A new photographic exhibition traces the remarkable career arc of Anthony Head, the actor who seamlessly transitioned from the suave, coffee-swigging figure of 1990s British advertising to the warm, morally grounded mentor of Apple TV+’s global phenomenon Ted Lasso. The exhibition, titled ‘From Instant to Icon’, opens next week at London’s Photographer’s Gallery and offers a rare, behind-the-scenes view of how a single face can mirror two distinct cultural moments.
Head, now 70, first lodged himself in the public consciousness with a series of Nescafe Gold Blend adverts that ran from 1987 to 1993. The campaign, which followed the will-they-won’t-they romance between Head’s character and a woman played by Sharon Maughan, became a national obsession. It was appointment television. The adverts were so popular that they spawned a novel, a TV movie, and a question: would modern audiences ever accept an advertisement as a legitimate narrative form? Head’s performance, dripping with understated charisma, hinted at an actor who could hold a narrative over time.
Fast forward three decades, and Head is again the anchor of a slow-burn story. As the subtle yet wise Ted Lasso character, he embodies a quiet authority that counterpoints the show’s manic optimism. The exhibition’s photographer, Sarah Maple, spent two years documenting Head on set and in studios, capturing the quiet moments between takes. One image shows him reviewing a script, a cup of tea steaming beside him, his expression a mix of concentration and exhaustion. Another captures a rare laugh with Jason Sudeikis, the show’s lead and co-creator. Maple’s lens dwells on hands, on eyes, on the spaces between words.
What makes the exhibition resonate is its exploration of cultural continuity. Head’s career is a case study in how technology and taste evolve yet certain human elements persist. The Nescafe adverts were early experiments in long-form content, a precursor to the streaming era’s binge-worthy arcs. In the 1990s, we consumed stories in two-minute bursts between our favourite shows. Now we consume them in ten-hour stretches. But the need for a relatable, evolving protagonist remains constant.
There is also a subtle commentary on the nature of digital permanence. The exhibition uses augmented reality to overlay snippets from the original adverts onto the photographs. Visitors can point their smartphones at a still of Head in a tweed jacket and see the original Nescafe spot play out. This layering effect underscores a fragmented internet age where memories exist in discrete, portable chunks. Head’s face becomes a search history, a timeline of our collective pop culture.
Yet the show is not purely nostalgic. It asks uncomfortable questions about the commodification of identity. Head has spoken about the bittersweet nature of being remembered for a coffee advert. In a recent interview, he confessed that even now, strangers stop him to ask about ‘that coffee romance’. The exhibition does not shy away from this paradox: we celebrate the familiar, but that same familiarity can trap an artist. One photograph, a stark close-up of Head’s profile, is titled ‘Caffeine and Catharsis’. It suggests that even the most iconic role is a form of ingestion, a little daily ritual that fuels the public, but leaves the performer with a long aftertaste.
Critics have praised the show for its technical ambition. The gallery uses eye-tracking technology to analyse which images hold a visitor’s gaze the longest. Early data suggests that the photographs of Head in unguarded moments, away from character, capture the most attention. This is the Black Mirror twist: we crave the real person behind the mask, but we only know them through layers of mediation.
Ultimately, ‘From Instant to Icon’ is a mirror to our own consumption habits. Head’s journey from Nescafe to Ted Lasso is not just his story. It is the story of how we watch, how we remember, and how we let technology shape our cultural icons. The exhibition runs until March 2024, but the conversation about what we expect from our screens is far from over.
