[mister valve]

They are competent performers, if a little plain in appearance.
It seems strange today to think of people actually renting a radio back then.
TV sets were expensive, so renting made sense, especially the early colour sets.[/QUOTE]

My Aunt used to rent a radio from "Radio Rentals" and a television from "Top Rank", because as she used to say, "When they go wrong, they come out and mend them". The television always seemed to go wrong, especially after watching the then, newly introduced BBC2 channel which was on 625 line UHF system. BBC1 & ITV were still only on the 405 line VHF system. It must have been a design fault somewhere.

In Eastbourne where my Aunt lived, you used to be able to rent Kettles from the Corporation ! Which had a plate with the words "Property of Eastbourne Corporation" attached under the lid knob. When the Corporation stopped renting kettles, they just let you keep the kettle.