Cup of Tea, a Bex, and a Good Lie Down

Where "Cup of Tea, a Bex, and a Good Lie Down" Comes From

Bex was a brand of compound analgesic powder — APC powder, containing aspirin, phenacetin, and caffeine — manufactured by Beckers Pty Ltd of South Australia from the 1920s. The slogan "a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down" became embedded in Australian domestic culture as the prescribed remedy for any complaint: headache, worry, family drama, or minor catastrophe. The phrase captured a particular attitude toward distress — that it was manageable, that rest and mild analgesics would see you through, and that one ought not to make a fuss.

The cultural resonance of the expression outlasted the product itself. Phenacetin, one of the three active ingredients in APC powder, was found to cause kidney damage with long-term use. It was removed from Bex in 1975, and APC powders were banned entirely in Australia in 1977. The play A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down (1965), by John McKellar and Barry Oakley, dramatised the domestic world the expression came from, and the phrase has remained in Australian English ever since — often used ironically now, acknowledging both the remedy and its eventual toxicity.

Source: Wikipedia — “Bex (analgesic)”