Skips are a crisp from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

; which were first launched in 1974 in

prawn cocktail Prawn cocktail, also known as shrimp cocktail, is a seafood dish consisting of shelled, cooked prawns in a Marie Rose sauce or cocktail sauce, served in a glass. It was the most popular hors d'œuvre in Great Britain, as well as in the United ...

flavour. Skips are similar to Chinese prawn crackers, although they are smaller and have a finer texture that makes them fizz and melt on the tongue. The snacks are made by

KP Snacks KP Snacks is a British producer of branded and own-label maize-, potato-, and nut-based snacks, "Choc Dips" and nuts. The ''KP'' stands for “Kenyon Produce”. The company is based in Slough, England, UK. History The company was founded in ...

under license of the German snack food company

Intersnack Intersnack Group GmbH & Co. KG is a German snack food company that annually produces around 600,000 tonnes of snacks including potato chips, nuts, baked products and specialty snacks. The company is privately owned and has in excess of 8,000 em ...

. In the United Kingdom, they are made with

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North Region, Brazil, North and Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast regions of Brazil, but wh ...

starch and in Ireland with

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

starch. Packets of Skips often have

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...

s or

tongue twister A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters p ...

s written on the back, which are aimed at

children A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

. Other flavours, such as

pickled onion Pickled onions are a food item consisting of onions (cultivars of ''Allium cepa'') pickled in a solution of vinegar and salt, often with other preservatives and flavourings.ReBoot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

Dots Doughnut (pink bag) and a ReBoot pizza flavour, Sweetcorn Relish (1985, yellow bag and Sweet'n'Sour have been available in the past. In 2002, KP launched 2 new variations of Skips intended to offer a 'unique taste sensation'. Buzz Boltz featured a 'crunch-melt' experience and Tickle Pickle delivered a 'puff-melt' sensation. Both have since been discontinued. Since early 2006, Skips have seen a 30% reduction in saturated fat and a 10% reduction in sodium and are made with 100% sunflower oil. Skips contain no artificial colours or flavourings. In 2012, the brand and KP Snacks was sold by United biscuits to German company Intersnack. In the Republic of Ireland, Skips are sold under the Tayto brand, which is also owned by

Sponsorship and TV adverts

The children's theme has been extended in previous years with the sponsorship of Dragon's Fury, a popular attraction at

Chessington World Of Adventures Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England, around southwest of Central London. The complex opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931, with the theme park being developed along ...

. Ex-''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' actress

Daniela Denby-Ashe Daniela Jolanta Denby-Ashe (born 9 August 1978) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Sarah Hills on the soap opera ''EastEnders'', Margaret Hale on the period drama ''North and South'', and Janey Harper on the BBC sitcom ''My F ...

, who played Sarah Hills in the show and Janey Harper in ''

My Family ''My Family'' is a British sitcom created and initially co-written by Fred Barron, which was produced by DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy Productions, and broadcast by BBC One for eleven series between 2000 and 2011, with Christmas specials broadc ...

'', appeared in a Skips advert as a teenager. Also in the 1980s, wrestler

Giant Haystacks Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was an English professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks. He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s ...

appeared in a TV advert for Skips, with the closing line "Dainty aren't they?".

Action Biker ''Action Biker'' (also known as ''KP Skips Action Biker with Clumsy Colin'' in the UK) is a 1985 game for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum released by Mastertronic. The game was a tie-in with snack food KP Skips, whose ...

, a mid-1980s budget computer game from

Mastertronic Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were distributed in mid-1984. At its peak the label was one of the largest software publishers in the UK, achieved b ...

, featured the Clumsy Colin character from the then-current Skips adverts, as well as KP Skips branding on the case artwork. Actor

Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...

voiced a series of ads as an anthropomorphic tongue, meant to be the viewer's. The ads aired with the closing line "Stick a Skip on your tongue; it asked for it!"

References

{{reflist Products introduced in 1974 Brand name snack foods British snack foods United Biscuits brands

Sponsorship and TV adverts

See also

References