On Friday 18 September, IRN-BRU is hiding Amanda Barrie somewhere in London on a branded mobility scooter with a pants-shaped flag on the back. The first twelve people to find her get £125 each in cash. Clues drop on the brand’s social accounts on the day.
The stunt is called Granny Tourismo, or Catch Me If You Gran, and it marks 125 years of IRN-BRU, which is where the £125 comes from. There are three secret London locations and a dozen wads of cash to be claimed, and it has already been round Glasgow on Tuesday, Edinburgh on Wednesday and Liverpool on Thursday. London is the last stop.
The granny in question is 91 and has form
Amanda Barrie played Alma in Coronation Street for more than twenty years, was Cleo in Carry On Cleo, and has since done Bad Girls and Benidorm. Her autobiography, I’m Still Here, has just been published. She is 91.
“After all those years in the UK’s top soap and my Carry On capers, I know a thing or two about causing chaos,” she said. “They’ve traded shopping trolleys for mobility scooters and they’re determined not to be caught. If you do manage to stop one, you’ve definitely earned your £125.”
This is a 2001 advert come to life
The reference is The Electric Lady, the IRN-BRU ad where a sweet-looking pensioner glides through her town on a mobility scooter waving at the neighbours, then pulls her tea-cosy hat down over her face like a balaclava and cleans out a shop’s entire stock of cans. It is one of the great British soft drink adverts and it has been dusted off for the anniversary, along with a grandad who will do anything to get at his grandson’s BRU.
The scooter has been done out properly for the occasion: orange, blue flame racing stripes, an IRN-BRU crate for a basket and a flag in the shape of a pair of orange pants, which is a nod to the 2025 ad where a Scottish granny announces she is not wearing any before scooting off with a boy’s can.
How to actually find her
There is no map and no sign-up. The cryptic clues go out on IRN-BRU’s social channels on the day, pointing at a secret location somewhere in the city, and the first twelve people to reach her collect £125 each. Then she is gone.
Our take: this is a brand stunt and we are not going to pretend otherwise, but it is a good one, and £125 for turning up somewhere on a Friday is a better hourly rate than most things in London. The practical advice is to follow the account the night before rather than the morning of, because the clue will go out during working hours and twelve is not many. Our instinct on where they will put her: somewhere with a big flat concourse and a lot of footfall, which in London means a South Bank or a King’s Cross rather than a side street. Worth a look if you are already in town. Not worth clearing your diary for.
Need to know
- What: Granny Tourismo, IRN-BRU’s Catch Me If You Gran hunt, fronted by Amanda Barrie
- Where: three secret locations across London
- When: Friday 18 September 2026
- Prize: £125 each for the first twelve people to find her
- How to play: follow the clues on IRN-BRU’s social accounts on the day. No booking, no entry fee
- Already done: Glasgow 15 September, Edinburgh 16 September, Liverpool 17 September
More going on right now in our guide to what to do in London this week, and more oddities in our guide to quirky and unusual things to do in London.
