RHLSTP Book Club: The Golden Age Of Children’s TV

Although I’ve been – mostly – flattered and impressed by the reception that The Golden Age Of Children’s TV has met with, I do have to say that it was a particular honour to be invited on Richard Herring’s RHLSTP Book Club to talk about the book, the shows it features and the unwitting influence that children’s television has had on us all. Which is mostly an influence for good, but you do have to wonder how many people out there drew the exact wrong form of aspiration from Gripper Stebson, Fenella and Neville the ‘evil’ paper lad from The Paper Lads. This wasn’t just a particular honour simply because it’s a prestigious show, but also because Richard is someone I have both known and admired the work of for a very long time indeed, and from the reference to ‘a sort of lift in a basement at the BBC like in Rentaghost‘ in Lionel Nimrod’s Inexplicable World and the swearing Why Don’t You…? talking tennis balls in Fist Of Fun onwards, it’s fair to say that his ability to blend jokes at the expense of the stylistic trappings and budgetary shortcomings of children’s television with a genuine respect and affection for the source material had something of an influence on my own writing style. I really hope you enjoy this chat, which you can find at Richard’s website here or listen to below, and if you haven’t already got it yet you can get The Golden Age Of Children’s TV here; you can also get Richard’s own books including the exceptionally recommended Emergency Questions here. Thanks are also due to Chris ‘Not That One’ Evans for handling the technical side of the chat so patiently and you can find more from his extensive and eclectic catalogue of comedy productions at GoFasterStripe here.

No doubt some of you will want to read or listen to more about some of the shows we talk about or indeed that are mentioned in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, so I’ve included a list of which of them you can find covered in assorted features and podcasts and where below. Meanwhile, just for Richard, here is unarguable proof that, however he remembers it himself, Johnny Ball genuinely did balance a bar of gold on his back in Think Of A Number…

Tiswas and Noel Edmonds’ Multicoloured Swap Shop

The on-air rivalry between the BBC and ITV Saturday Morning shows that dominated the late seventies and more or less set the respective tones and templates for pretty much anything and everything that followed in the same timeslot even spilled out into the pop charts as The Four Bucketeers and Brown Sauce vied for position in the top forty, and you can find a full rundown of the surprisingly large volume of singles released by the Tiswas and Swap Shop teams here. There’s also a look at the peculiar story of waterborne putative Tiswas regional rival The Mersey Pirate here, and Samira Ahmed chatted about her memories of the Bill Oddie and Metal Mickey-fronted competitor The Saturday Banana here, while Estelle Hargraves reminisced about No. 73 here, Emma Burnell related the story of how she very nearly sang on the theme to The Saturday Show here and Chris Hughes took a look at the bizarre attempt to replace Swap Shop with a sort of interactive Ceefax in Buzzfax here.

Zokko!

Before Chris Tarrant and Noel were let loose on live transmissions with no script, Saturday Mornings were arguably an even stranger place still, and you can find the story of the BBC’s talking pinball machine-fronted Radiophonic Workshop-soundtracked psychedelic odyssey Zokko! here as well as Paul Cornell looking back at Outa-Space!, a show ostensibly ‘presented’ by the controls of a spaceship, here.

The Sunday Gang

If you’re in slightly more of a contemplative mood, you can join a certain group of fresh-faced happy-clappy parable-friendly teenagers plus wonky steam-driven ‘computer’ and screechy ‘Scottish’ puppet mouse for the Bible story-festooned story of The Sunday Gang here. Meanwhile, as there was often little else on Sunday Mornings other than a girl and clown locked in an eternal immobile game of noughts and crosses, you can find the full peculiar story of BBC Test Card F here. If you dare.

Stingray

Stand By For Lack Of Romantic Action! There’s a look at the hapless, hopeless love triangle raging between Troy Tempest, Atlanta Shore and Marina in Stingray here, and if you can’t help singing along to Aqua Marina in a lovelorn baritone then there’s a complete guide to all of the singles featuring music from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Supermarionation shows here and a celebration of the splendidly eerie The Mysteron Theme from Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons here. Meanwhile, although it wasn’t a children’s programme as such, Samira Ahmed shared her memories of Selfridges’ Space: 1999 Walkthrough here.

Jackanory

The two hundredth edition of Jackanory – part of a reading of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Little House In The Big Woods – was shown once in 1965 and then promptly erased and probably lost forever, but I had a go at working out what might have happened in it here. You can also find Joanne Sheppard on the spooky spin-off strand Spine Chillers here, me on the long-forgotten live-action staging of StarStormers here and Una McCormack on the collection of Tales From The Edge Of The World here.

Play School

There’s a similar attempt to work out what might have happened in the similarly long lost two hundredth edition of Play School here, as well as a look through the Arched Window at the earliest surviving Christmas edition of Play School from 1970 here, and a listen to the various hidden funky and folky highlights on the Play School and Play Away albums here and here.

Bagpuss

As I couldn’t find it in Emily’s shop there’s a look at my long search for the song Gabriel and Madeleine sing about the ‘Frog Princess’ in Bagpuss here, while Grace Dent gave a spellbinding evocation of why she loves Bagpuss so much here. Steve O’Brien also shared his thoughts on Bagpuss here, and Meryl O’Rourke reminisced about Sam On Boff’s Island, a BBC Schools programme made by the same crew and cast as Bagpuss, here.

Clangers

You can gaze through a telescope in wonder at Tiny Clanger’s planet-choreographing cosmic concerto with a look at the Clangers episode The Music Of The Spheres here, andyou can also find me chatting to Emma Burnell and Steve Fielding about the election-themed episode of Clangers – yes there really was one – here, and listen to Mark Griffith’s thoughts on Noggin The Nog, which featured the first ever appearance by a Clanger, here.

Barnaby

The outlandish dubbed French escapades of the musically-inclined orange bear who ran away from the circus to join home and was very particular about how you addressed him came in for deep philosophical scrutiny here, and there’s also a look at some of Barnaby‘s lesser-remembered contemporaries in the Watch With Mother slot with the story of how I found some lost episodes of How Do You Do! here, Rose Ruane on Brian Cant oddity Bric-A-Brac here, Phil Norman on junior science showcase Over The Moon here and me on dizzying light industrial machinery documentary strand Stop-Go! here.

Bod

On a similarly philosophical tangent, there’s a look at the festive escapades of Bod and his friends here and Georgy Jamieson shared her theories on what ideologies were really at work in the world’s most existential game of snap here. If you prefer your lunchtime stories with moderately less Taoist open-endedness, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch had plenty to say about the tie-in album of Mr. Men Songs here.

Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley

There’s a full critical architectural tour of every building seen in Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley here, along with a theory about which Jimi Hendrix song was inspired by Camberwick Green here, some thoughts on why so many youngsters were terrified of the Camberwick Green Clown here, in-depth assessments of the episode of Camberwick Green with Peter Hazel The Postman here and the one where the phone lines got mixed up in Trumpton here, and a look at how Radio Times originally introduced Camberwick Green here. There’s also a look at the long forgotten fourth series Rubovia – which did exist, honest – here.

Chorlton And The Wheelies and Jamie And The Magic Torch

Cosgrove Hall’s faintly psychedelic animations blurring blunt Northern wit and highbrow literary silliness have unsurprisingly been a huge talking point with guests on the various podcasts, and you can head down the helter skelter faster and faster towards Cuckooland with Grace Dent on Chorlton And The Wheelies here, Melanie Williams on Jamie And The Magic Torch here, and Al Kennedy on Count Duckula here and Alias The Jester here.

Rainbow

Cosgrove Hall also provided the opening titles, the interstitial animations and the stop-motion inserts featuring Sally And Jake and Grandma Bricks and company for ITV’s long-running lunchtime show, and while we’re all as tired of the jokes about Zippy selling Geoffrey as drugs or something as you are, Ricardo Autobahn gave us a much more nuanced take on why he remembers Rainbow so fondly here. Meanwhile, as there is nowhere else it can really fit, you can find Phil Norman on the almost entirely forgotten ITV lunchtime show Oscar The Rabbit In Rubbidge here.

Pipkins

Where Bungle and company liked to keep everything light and simple, Hartley Hare and his literal ragbag of scrappy motheaten sentient puppet associates ran riot across the screen in a fourth wall-averse riot of sarcasm, complex social issues and well-intended inadvertent logical and physical destructiveness. You can find a look at the unexpected and oddly poignant conclusion of the last ever instalment of Pipkins here and Phil Norman talking about his love of the show here. There’s also more on scrappy ITV lunchtime puppets with Lisa Parker and Andrew Trowbridge on Animal Kwackers here and Danny Kodicek on Pullover and Fox Tales – which he may well have a surprising link to – here.

The Herbs

You don’t seem to hear that much about Parsley, Dill and their fellow residents of the Herb Garden these days for some reason, but an entire generation still quakes in terror when they recall that time when the gentle post-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band pastoral whimsy of The Herbs was invaded by a cackling witch intent on making them all into weeds, which you can find a look at along with some thoughts on the surprising proliferation of witches in sixties children’s television here.

Mr. Benn

Everyone will have their favourite amongst the costume shop-botherer’s escapades through The Door That Could Lead To Adventure. Mine is the one where he became involved in a Victorian balloon race, mainly on account of the fantastic music accompanying the airborne chase, and you can find my thoughts on that here while Donna Rees countered with her favourite episode of Mr. Benn here.

Rentaghost

If your mansion house needs haunting, there’s a look at the little-seen Rentaghost Christmas Special Rentasanta – which included Dobbin The Pantomime Horse’s origin story – here, and you can also find me speaking up for the little-remembered and little-liked sci-fi themed follow-up series from the same production team Galloping Galaxies! here. Mitch Benn had plenty to say about Rentaghost‘s spooky sitcom rival Nobody’s House here, and there’s more from that peculiarly riotous strand of comedy you only got with children’s television with Chris Shaw on Film Fun here, Carrie Dunn on Maid Marian And Her Merry Men here, John Rain on Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It here, Justin Lewis on Emu’s Broadcasting Company here and Deborah Tracey on Emu’s All-Live Pink Windmill Show here.

Magpie and Blue Peter

Were you a Magpie viewer or a Blue Peter viewer? As with Tiswas and Swap Shop, the purported class-driven audience rivalry has doubtless been exaggerated at best, but you can find some thoughts on whether Magpie deserves its hip, trendy and daringly informal reputation here while Jane Hill joined me to argue the case for Blue Peter‘s polite no-nonsense approach to hobbies and interests here. There’s more on the abruptly curtailed Magpie‘s successors with Gary Bainbridge on Ace Reports here and Hilary Machell on CBTV here, and on a similarly factual tangent Will Maclean sang and storied the praises of Isla St. Clair inadvertently inventing folk horror in The Song And The Story here.

Captain Zep – Space Detective

Another crime, another case, the clues are there for you to trace – yes, it’s the BBC’s early eighties microchip-age attempt at interactivity with viewers invited to deduce the culprit’s identity in tandem with S.O.L.V.E.’s greatest investigator Captain Zep – Space Detective, and you can find the full story behind it here. If quizzes are the round you play your joker on then you can also find Jonny Morris on Crackerjack! here, Lydia Mizon on Fun House here, Tom Williamson on Knightmare here and Blockbusters here, Phil Norman on Spy Trap here and Mitch Benn on Star Turn/Star Turn Challenge here.

The Box Of Delights

A huge favourite around here – as to be fair it is pretty much everywhere – and you can find an in-depth episode by episode rewatch slash review of The Box Of Delights crammed with all manner of mid-eighties pop cultural diversions here as well as a look at the story behind the theme music here and a chat with Stephen O’Brien about what it was like to watch The Box Of Delights as at the time as just another children’s programme here, along with a more general look at the BBC’s long history of spooky children’s serials in a similar timeslot here and a handful of corresponding one-off plays including The Bells Of Astercote and Ghost In The Water here. Speaking of those spooky serials, you can find more on this incredibly popular corner of the children’s schedules with Una McCormack on The Children Of Green Knowe here, Rae Earl on Codename Icarus here, Toby Hadoke on The Machine Gunners here, Richard Littler on The Moon Stallion here, Jane Hill on Out Of Bounds here, Mark Thompson on Running Scared here, me on Pinocchio here and Joanne Sheppard on The December Rose here, Dramarama: The Exorcism Of Amy here, The Enchanted Castle here, The Strange Affair Of Adelaide Harris here and The Baker Street Boys here.

The Changes

The 1975 near-future thriller about a Britain overrun with modern-day luddites and a teenage girl who is immune to their photocopier-trashing mania seems to have a particular hold over anyone who has seen it; you can find Samira Ahmed reflecting on the impact that The Changes had on her as a young viewer here and my look at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s mighty Krautrock-inspired soundtrack here.

The Owl Service

ITV were not exactly slouches when it came to spooky late sixties slash seventies children’s serials either, and you can find my look at how closely the pop-art meets folk-horror celluloid extremity of The Owl Service matched up with Alan Garner’s original novel here and Bob Fischer’s appreciation of the widely celebrated serial here, plus there’s further ITV spookiness with Richard Littler on Come Back Lucy here and Donna Rees on King Of The Castle here.

Grange Hill

Everyone probably has their own personal opinion on when the long-running schoolroom unruliness saga was at its best, usually depending on what ‘year’ they belonged to and which of the characters they secretly dreamed of being at actual school with – although I would be surprised if there were too many correspondents who looked quite as favourably on it post the 1988 theme music overhaul – but you’ll doubtless find a good deal of overlap between Anna Cale on being terrified by Ronnie Birtles’ shoplifting storyline here, Mitch Benn on ‘evil’ teacher Mr. Hicks’ reign of P.E.-based terror here, Ben Baker on the Harriet The Donkey-introducing Christmas Special here and John Rain and Emma Burnell on their respective favourite and indeed least favourite characters here and here. You can add your own impression of that four-note guitar sting.

Press Gang

Well, if you’re going to invite people to talk about their favourite children’s television programme and why they love it so much, you’re probably going to find this one gets mentioned a lot. So you can find Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Anna Cale on why they found Press Gang so inspiring here and here respectively, and Stephen O’Brien on the incredible tale of how he went from being a viewer to becoming involved with the show itself and editing the official Press Gang fan newsletter here.

Battle Of The Planets

Well, we all heard the rumours – or rather were lectured about them – about how Battle Of The Planets was much more adult and violent and what can only be described as ‘grubby’ in its original Japanese iteration, but there was a reason why it caught the imagination of BBC viewers, 7-Zark-7 and 1-Rover-1 and all, and Rae Earl joined me for a chat about how uneasily handled the remaining trace elements of less savoury excisions in the English language dub were here. If your imagination was similarly fired by these Westernised glimpses of what we didn’t actually know was called ‘anime’ yet then you can also find Vikki Gregorich on Ulysses 31 here and a look at Star Fleet and other examples of The Sci-Fi That Time Forgot here, and while it wasn’t actually originally Japanese, you can also find me on the very much stylistically aligned Space Sentinels here.

The Singing Ringing Tree

While we’re on the subject of dubbed imports, you can find the story of the celebrated nightmarish visually scorching bad trip East German fairytale allegory for rejecting the spoils of the establishment The Singing Ringing Tree here, alongside similar looks at fellow BBC-favoured Tales From Europe Belle And Sebastian here and The Flashing Blade here, as well as Andy Lewis on The Aeronauts and The Secret Of Steel City here and Martin Ruddock on The Legend Of Tim Tyler here.

The Monkees

They may not have been dubbed, and in some cases may not strictly have been children’s programmes, but the manner in which the BBC hacked them around to fit the sensibilities of their own children’s schedules meant that The Monkees, The Banana Splits, Star Trek and Boss Cat – yes, Boss Cat – might as well to all intents and purposes have been entirely different programmes to UK viewers and there’s a look at how and why this happened here. In slightly less hamfistedly edited but no less memorable form you can find Lisa Parker and Andrew Trowbridge on Big John Little John here, me on California Fever here and Toby Hadoke on The Red Hand Gang here.

Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

Thankfully few of them were as harshly retooled for UK audiences as Boss Cat, but many of Hanna Barbera’s most popular animated series were actually prised out of longer-form American shows featuring several distinct cartoons, which is why so many of them ended with generic credits backed by that boingy hoedown instrumental that originally served as the theme to The CB Bears. One of them that made it through more or less unscathed, unless there were all manner of trims to remove elements deemed too scary that we know nothing about, was Scooby Doo, Where Are You! and you can find Joel Morris’ fascinating thoughts on its enduring appeal here as well as Georgy Jamieson on the surprisingly unedited and very much not intended for children social satirical sitcom Wait Till Your Father Gets Home here.

Bailey’s Comets

Not every cartoon was made by Hanna Barbera, and for every Hong Kong Phooey there was a Fangface, a Mister T, a Challenge Of The Gobots or any of the other eighty four million efforts from rival studios like DePatie-Freleng and Ruby Spears. You can find Chris Shaw on noted Richard Herring favourite Bailey’s Comets here as well as Melanie Williams on Mr. Rossi Looks For Happiness here, Mic Wright on Around The World With Willy Fog here, Will Maclean on Once Upon A Time… Man here, Anna Cale on Sport Billy here, Adam S. Leslie on The Mysterious Cities Of Gold here, and – in a textbook display of early Channel 4 deliberate oddness – Nina Buckley on Murun Buchstansangur here.

Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends

The eighties was of course also the dawn of high quality action cartoons usually with an associated toy line or multimedia franchise, which caused no end of frowning concern amongst broadsheet columnists but delivered the actual viewers with everything they wanted more, with hopes that they would also deliver Bumblebee on Christmas Day too. You can find Garreth Hirons on Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends here and me on Spider-Woman here, as well as Mark Thompson on Drak Pack here, Katy Brent on Defenders Of The Earth here, Paul Abbott on Transformers here, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch on Dungeons And Dragons here, and a fully canonical Star Wars double bill of Phil Catterall on Droids here and Katy Brent on Ewoks here.

Look And Read

Considering that it felt like you had somehow been allowed to watch ‘proper’ television during school hours, it’s hardly surprising that the BBC’s drama-based literacy show Look And Read should have proved such a popular choice with Looks Unfamiliar guests and you can find Bibi Lynch on The Boy From Space here, Will Maclean on The King’s Dragon here and Lydia Mizon on Through The Dragon’s Eye here. While you’re sitting cross-legged in front of that big telly with shutters on it pretending to ‘shoot’ the dots, you can also find a look at Music Time‘s adaptation of Lieutenant Kije here and Watch‘s quest to uncover the factual veracity of The Nativity here as well as Catrin Lowe on Good Health here, Phil Norman on Leapfrog here, Adam S. Leslie on Maths-In-A-Box here and me on that time W.A.L.R.U.S. was invaded by a Dalek here.

The Magic Roundabout

Just ahead of the news and the boring newsreaders in boring shirts being boring about boring stuff, there’s just enough time for me chatting to Paul Abbott about the remarkable story of The Magic Roundabout here, and there’s more about Dylan’s fellow occupants of the pre-news slot with Hilary Machell on Noah And Nelly In SkylArk here, Suzy Robinson on The Wombles here and Lydia Mizon on Stoppit And Tidyup here, and a look at ITV’s equivalent slot at the other end of the schedules with Melanie Williams on Aubrey here, Steve O’Brien on Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings here and Garreth Hirons on Trap Door here.

Buy A Book!

The Golden Age Of Children’s TV is available in all good bookshops and from Waterstones here, Amazon here, from the Kindle Store here and directly from Black And White Publishing here.

You can get both of Richard’s Emergency Questions from Chris Evans (not that one, or the one from the Captain America films) at Go Faster Stripe here.

Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. For perusing the weekend newspapers with Andrew Collins below a poster of the Caffe Ritazza woman, obviously.

Further Listening

You can find the tie-in podcast for The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, with a small army of guests talking about their favourite children’s television programme and why they love it so much, here.