Not only is the tune from "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green", but the plot is also similiar. I was once told that George Ridley heard Harry Clifton singing "Pretty Polly Perkins" in Lodon and re-worked it as a geordie song.

Of course at one time it was used as an advert for Newcastle Brown Ale on Tyne-Tees television with the extra chorus:

It's a fine beer, it's a bonny beer,
It's the North's biggest sale.
For finest satisfaction
Newcastle Brown Ale - Newcastle Brown Ale.

It was sung by the late Owen Brannigan.