Good things take time, but always come to an end

The new Mainland Cheese ads feature a boy and his grandfather. Photo / Supplied

The adverts say: "Good things take time" and, for the two actors who have appeared on television as the faces of Mainland cheese for the past decade, that time is up.

Kevin Corcoran and Terry Procter - the elderly men who became household faces appearing in the adverts waiting for cheese to mature - have been replaced with a new duo - a grandfather and his grandson.

Fonterra, which owns the brand, has decided on a new direction for the advertisements but is staying with its story-telling theme.

The new adverts, which carry the same familiar background music, introduce a young boy arriving to stay with his cheese-maker grandfather in the mythical "Mainland Valley" in the South Island, where they are eating bread rolls with cheese in them.

Cromwell-based Mr Corcoran said that after appearing in the advertisements for 10 years, he was told in an apologetic phone-call about two weeks ago that he and Mr Procter would no longer be involved.

He and Mr Procter were surprised "but not upset" by the news.

"We're just taking it on the shoulder and carrying on."

Mr Corcoran said his favourite advertisement was the first ad the pair did together which showed them walking along reciting a word game using musicians' names and species of fish such as "Cod Stewart" and "Tim and Eel Finn".

Mr Corcoran cannot count the number of commercials he appeared in for the company but reckons it was about "10 or a dozen".

Asked if he had any highlights over the years, Mr Corcoran said:

"They always put us up in a hotel somewhere and they were very good ... it was a bit of a novelty, I suppose.

"We got to see a lot of places that we wouldn't normally and we were well looked after."

Mr Corcoran said he and Mr Procter expected to keep in touch as they were invited to speak at functions about three times a year.

Mainland marketing manager Debbie Barlow said Mr Corcoran and Mr Procter had been hugely successful and popular but it was time for a change.