The first of the patients was Roy Figgis, played by James Bolam. Roy was the trouble maker on the ward. If there was something to complain about he would, and if there was a rule to be broken he would break it. Next was Archie Glover, a role that was just made for Peter Bowles. Archie tried to distance himself from Roy, thinking he was a better class of person. Finally there was Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli) who was the nervous, Mummy’s boy type character.

Their surgeon, Mr. Thorpe, was none other than Richard Wilson, better known as Victor Meldrew from One Foot In The Grave. He would come in and order the patients about, but given how long they were under his care he obviously wasn’t much of a surgeon.

Finally there was the male Indian hospital orderly, known only as Gupte (Derrick Branche), who was ordered about even more so than the patients by Mr. Thorpe, and was the stooge for many of the jokes. This was the sort of character that you just wouldn’t get in a sitcom these days as it would not be deemed politically correct.

As with many shows from my childhood, it is once again the theme tune that I most remember, which was the rather mournfully sung (at least initially) I’m H.A.P.P.Y. For quite some time I was convinced that the programme was actually called I’m H.A.P.P.Y because of this song.

Today I want to concentrate on what I consider to be the Muppets at their best by talking about The Muppet Show.

The Muppet Show ran for five years from 1976 to 1981 and clocked up 120 episodes in that time. During this time the regular characters such as Kermit the Frog, the karate chopping Miss Piggy and the struggling comedian Fozzie Bear became household names, and are still well known today despite not being on TV regularly any more.

The show was conceived by Muppet’s creator Jim Henson, who was beginning to feel typecast for his work on Sesame Street and wanted to do something to appeal to all the family. He came up with the idea of the Muppets putting on a variety show from a theatre, a form of entertainment that was still popular back in the Seventies but which has become much rarer these days on television.

The format worked brilliantly, with comedy sketches and songs featuring a wide array of Muppet characters and also that weeks guest star. The Muppet Show became the one programme that real life stars wanted to be on, much like The Simpsons has been in more recent years.

There were so many brilliant bits to look forward to each week. My favourite was undoubtedly Pigs in Space (or Piiiiiigs Iiiiiiin Spaaaaace, to give it it’s proper title!) but I also liked Muppet Labs with Dr Bunsen Honeydew and the ever put upon Beaker. Veterinarians Hospital was usually fun too, if only for the end when Rowlf, Piggy and Janice would look around to find out where the narrator’s voice was coming from.

The Muppet Show has proved incredibly popular right around the world, and I think one of the reasons for this is down to it’s production. It always felt partly American thanks to the array of guest stars who were primarily from the US, but as it was filmed in the UK something British must have worked its way into the mix, as it also felt partly home grown too. Perhaps this is why the more recent attempt at bringing the format back, in the form of Muppets Tonight, didn’t work quite so well?

I’ll finish off by leaving you with the “most sensational, inspirational” Muppet Show intro. I’m sure you all remember the words and music, don’t you?

It’s been around 20 years since SodaStream last advertised their range of fizzy drinks makers on television, and no expense has been spared on the new ad. Indeed it has an almost movie feel to it, starting with images of sad and dejected people whilst a voice over talks rather ambiguously about lost loves and things of that ilk.

The advert then changes to shots of people being happy because their love is returning, and it is revealed that this love is none other than the good old SodaStream machine!

That said, as you can see in the image the brand new SodaStream model looks rather more space age than the original yellow and white plastic affair that I remember having in our family kitchen.

The new machines certainly look the business, and one aspect they are being sold under is that they are greener than buying bottles of fizzy pop. After all, you just use tap water to make the drink and the gas cylinder is returnable when it has expired.

The thing that pleases me most though is that SodaStream have wisely decided to retain their old slogan in the new advert, so get ready to “get busy with the fizzy” once more!

Also, assuming the police force stumped up to have this man turned into a crime fighting machine, you’d think they would have picked somebody a little less bumbling in nature, rather than the Inspector Clousea/Agent Smart hybrid they ended up with.

Gadget might have been accident prone, but he did have a huge array of useful gadgets, most of which he brought into service by saying “Go Go Gadget Arms” or “Go Go Gadget Egg Whisk”. You get the idea. Despite the clear instructions from the Inspector, quite often the wrong gadget would activate, thus adding to the accident count.

As well as the extending arms and legs, Gadget had multiple smaller gadgets stored in his fingers (including a laser and a communications device), a helicopter in his hat, an inflatable coat (activated by pulling a button) and many, many more. Gadget also had a suitably high tech car called the Gadgetmobile, which was also laden with useful features and could transform between police car and van modes, and even a boat on occasion.

Every episode would start with Gadget going about his normal life with Penny and their dog Brain, before Chief Quimby would turn up (normally popping out of a rubbish bin or out of a manhole) to issue Gadget with his latest mission. In a nod to Mission Impossible, the message would normally self destruct in Quimby’s face, as Gadget ditched the note just in time to avoid the blast.

Inspector Gadget’s missions were normally James Bond style affairs, with the ultimate aim to stop agents of the villainous Doctor Claw’s evil organisation, named MAD. Whilst we always heard the gravelly voiced Claw giving out orders, and damning Gadget at the end of each episode, all we ever saw of him was his big, pointy, metallic glove. Oh, and his pet cat, since all evil supervillains should have a pet cat.

With Gadget being the bumbling fool he was his cases were normally solved by Penny and Brain, though Gadget was never aware of this. Penny had a Computer Book which could do just about anything, and also had a wrist watch which enabled her to tell Brain what to do from a safe distance.

Poor Brain though. Unusually for a cartoon dog he couldn’t talk, but he was still able to communicate with and understand Penny’s orders. He did however spend most of his time walking in a more humanoid fashion, often in a disguise so that the dim-witted Gadget wouldn’t recognise him (though you could clearly tell it was Brain through the wigs and fake moustaches).

The cartoon ran from 1983 to 1986 and clocked up 86 episodes. It remained on our screens for much longer though, due to its popularity, and in 1999 it was still considered popular enough to be turned into a live action film by Walt Disney Pictures, and starring Eighties favourite Matthew Broderick as Gadget. This first film did fairly well (and features a nice spoof of a scene from the Hollywood Godzilla, another Broderick movie) and it spawned a sequel, although Broderick did not reprise the role and the film presumably ended up as a direct to video affair.

John Craven’s Newsround first came on air in 1972, and from then until 1989 the legendary sweater wearer John Craven told kids what was going on in the world in a clear and straight forward way. It was never really dumbed down though, just told without a load of jargon, waffle and conjecture. John gave you the facts of the story, and it was up to you to decide what you thought about it.

Newsround, as it is now called since Craven left the series, is still airing today, and has gone through a succession of presenters including Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who now hosts Channel 4’s evening news and Juliet Morris, who went on to read BBC Breakfast News before going on to present a number of other shows. You can still see Mr. Craven on TV though, as he hosts the BBC countryside show Countryfile.

Of course, the stories chosen were usually ones that were more likely to appeal to children in the first place, such as the near endless stream of stories about Giant Pandas, but you did get real news too. In fact, Newsround (as it became known since John left) was the first British news programme to report on the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, and was also first with news of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

There are three more things that Newsround will always be remembered for though. One was the way the day of the week was repeated on the wall behind John Craven, the second was that intense theme song, and the third was the old rectangular phone sat on the desk behind John. Boy, how you wished that phone would ring, just once!

Carling Black Label used to run a very successful campaign, spread across numerous adverts, which were based on the idea of some bloke doing something extremely well, and a couple of onlookers watching him and commenting “I bet he drinks Carling Black Label“. They had many great adverts using this theme, but the cowboy one was definitely my favourite.

It starts with a cowboy clutching a bag leaving a western saloon bar. A posse of riders appears and the cowboy runs away, but is lassoed by some of them. The cowboy continues to run, pulling those who lassoed him from their steeds, and dragging them along the ground as if they were being dragged along by a stagecoach.

We see the cowboy continue through rivers and desert before running off into the sunset, still pulling along the other men, before we hear the tag line and cut to a picture of a pint of Carling accompanied by a jingle.

“Is that all?“, I hear you say. Well, this is where it gets clever. The next advert comes on, or so we think. It’s an advert for a compilation album of love songs, with two lovers walking through a beautiful landscaped garden. Next thing you know the cowboy, still lassoed, bursts through a hedge, followed by a horse jumping the hedge. The cowboy has apparently invaded the next advert!

The cowboy makes his escape, after destroying much of the garden in the process, and the young lady being wooed is scooped up onto a horse, leaving her Romeo looking a little dejected.

But it doesn’t end there. The screen goes black and we cut to two women in a supermarket talking about washing powder. One of the women takes a box from the shelf, and who should be peeping through from behind but our cowboy friend, pushing a trolley but still wearing the lasso.

After trashing the supermarket in much the same way as he trashed the garden, the cowboy leaves the supermarket, bumping into the jilted lover from the love songs advert at the checkout. He manages to escape to a pub for a pint, whereupon we’re treated once more to the proper end of a Carling Black Label ad.

I’ve spoken to many people over the years about this advert, and have only received blank looks, but it definitely did exist, the proof being this video clip of the advert which you can see below.

MTV was launched in the US in 1981, so it really did form a backbone for musical popularity for US kids. Of course, the US was looked on in envy by us British kids, who only had four channels to choose from, with kids programming limited to certain times of the day. The closest we got to a music channel was Top of the Pops!

That changed in 1987 with the launch of MTV Europe, although the number of people able to view the channel was still severely limited since most didn’t have a satellite or cable TV setup with which to receive it. Indeed, it wasn’t until the early nineties that I finally got to see what all the fuss was about for myself when we got our first Amstrad satellite dish screwed to the wall of the house.

MTV was an odd kind of channel because it didn’t really featuring programmes as such back then. There were little segments such as MTV News which told you some of the latest goings on in the music world, but to all intents and purposes MTV was a channel all about playing music videos.

Now, I was never particularly into music as a kid. I watched Top of the Pops as most kids do, and listened to the Top 40 on the radio on Sunday afternoons, but that was about it for me. I never bought records or tapes much growing up, and to this day I’ve never personally owned a proper Hi Fi system, but I did use to like watching the music videos on Top of the Pops, so MTV actually became a bit of a favourite for me when I first got a taste of more than four TV channels.

The channel did have presenters though, who hosted the little in between bits in much the same way as a radio disc jockey would. They were known, strangely enough, as video jockeys, or VJs, and there were quite a number of them. Eighties pop star Paul King was one (he always seemed to be the straight man, and often hosted the MTV News segment) and Ray Cokes was another. I used to find Ray very amusing for some reason, and I’m sure he was the main reason why I enjoyed the early 1990’s Channel 4 show Wanted, which involved contestants trying to evade capture across the UK from a trio of trackers.

MTV has changed considerably now though, and is now firmly based around a core of programmes which are often completely un-music related, which seems strange considering the M always stood for Music. Shows such as Pimp My Ride and Cribs undoubtedly appeal greatly to the channels original demographic, but I wonder why the emphasis on music videos has been lost? May be because today’s music styles are just too diverse, and everybody who used to enjoy MTV when they were younger has now switched over to VH1?

I can remember the title of the show and theme song as if it were yesterday. I remember the main character was an Indiana Jones type who flew one of those cool airplanes that can land on water. I remember a bar, which had a statue of a gold monkey on the bar surface (presumably where the title of the show came from) and I also remember there being a dog who wore an eye patch.

Not really high on detail I know, yet I remember lying on the sofa glued to the television whenever it was on. I even remember that it was on on Monday nights!

Before the Internet came along then that would probably have been that, but now a Google search or two later I can fill in some of the gaps in my memory, so for the rest of you out there scratching your head and going “hey, that rings a bell”, here goes…

The show was created by Donald P. Belisario, who is probably better known for Airwolf and time travel series Quantum Leap. It was set in the 1930’s, around the same time period that Raiders of the Lost Ark was set, and since Gold Monkey arrived on our screens it was often seen as being a Raiders cash in.

Apparently this is not the case though, as Belisario had been trying to get the show made since the 1970’s, but TV executives didn’t think that viewers would be interested in a show set in the Thirties, until Raiders came along of course.

The star of the series is Jake Cutter who runs an air freight business out of a fictional South Pacific island named Bora Gora. He flies a Grumman Goose (the sea plane I mentioned above) called Cutter’s Goose and he did indeed have a one eyed dog who wore an eye patch. The dog was called Jack, and he used to have a fake eye made from opal, until Jake lost it in a card game.

Jake’s best (non canine) friend is his engineer Corky, who is a fond of a little tipple or two (or three) which leads to him being more than a little forgetful at times.

The bar that Jake frequented was called The Monkey Bar, and it did indeed have a Gold Monkey within it. Well, that is, it appeared to be gold, but it was in fact made of brass. The bar was owned by “Bon Chance” Louie, who was played by the late Roddy McDowall, star of the Planet of the Apes films and TV series.

That’s about it for my memories then, and I’m pleased that I was at least in the right ball park with them. Here’s a little more though.

Jake also had a love interest by the name of Sarah Stickney White, who was a US Government spy working undercover as a singer in the Monkey Bar. Working for the Nazis was the (fake) Reverend Willie Tenboom, who used to spend a lot of his time trying to bless the natives of Bora Gora.

Other recurring characters were Japanese princess Koji and her bodyguard Todo. Koji was in part Jake’s enemy in some of the stories, although she kind of had a bit of a crush on him at the same time. Interestingly Koji and Todo both appear on the opening credits, despite only being in a few of the episodes.

Most excitingly though, it appears Tales of the Gold Monkey has even been released on DVD, although tracking down a copy might be difficult as it’s not currently in stock on Amazon, which doesn’t bode well.

To finish my little trip down memory lane, here’s a clip of the title sequence, and yes, I’m pleased to say that my memory of the theme tune was correct too!