Child Of The 1980’s

In 1987 Sylvester McCoy (real name Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith) took over from Colin Baker as the seventh incarnation of Timelord Doctor Who. Sylvester first came to the public eye as part of the comedy act “The Ken Campbell Roadshow”, where he played the part of a stuntman called Sylveste McCoy (note the lack of an R in the first name), putting nails up his nose and ferrets down his trousers, among other things (perhaps playing the spoons - this was a favourite mannerism of his Doctor). A reviewer of the show believed that Sylveste McCoy was the actors real name, which prompt Percy to adopt it as his stage name. Later, when he realised that Sylveste McCoy contained 13 letters, and believing this to be unlucky, the R was added to become Sylvester.

Sylvester’s career took him through childrens TV, via Vision On (with Tony Hart), Tiswas and Jigsaw with Janet Ellis before landing the role of Doctor Who. Given the show was finally axed by the BBC in 1989 he was officially the Timelord for only two years, however he is credited as having the role until 1996, since he appeared in another of the Doctor’s Children In Need charity specials in 1993 (called Dimension in Time) and also reprised the role in the much anticipated US pilot/film in 1996, resuming some continuity for the Doctor and handing over the reigns to Paul McGann.

Read more…

Colin Baker took over the role of the Doctor from Peter Davison in 1984, unusually midway through a series rather than at the end (the only other to date is when Patrick Troughton took over from William Hartnell). The regeneration occured at the end of The Caves of Androzani in a fairly quick manner with little warning, much to the surprise of the Doctor’s assistant at the time, Peri (pictured).

This Doctor was far more flamboyant and argumentative than most, with brightly coloured yellow trousers and a patchwork quilt coat more befitting of a clown. Personally I never much cared for this incarnation of the Doctor, finding him loud and rude, although the blame can’t be laid at Baker’s feet for this, being a product of the writers at the time. I therefore have few memories of any of the stories starring Colin Baker.

Interestingly, Colin Baker appeared in the show before he became the Doctor, in the Peter Davison story Arc of Infinity. In it he stuns the Doctor with a gun, leading to the joke that he got the part by force!

Read more…

With the new series of Doctor Who starting this weekend now seems a good time to reminisce about the Timelord as he was in the 1980’s. For many Tom Baker is often the most remembered incarnation of the Doctor, but given that he hung up his scarf and bag of jelly babies in 1981 after playing the character for seven years, I shall start with the fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, who incidentally also sang the theme tune to Button Moon with wife at the time Sandra Dickinson, fact fans!

Peter Davison’s was the youngest actor to play the role (he was only 29 when he started). The fifth Doctor had a bit of a shaky start, similar in fact to current Doctor David Tennant who was also not in tip top form for most of his debut story. The regeneration process didn’t quite work properly, and for the first few stories Davison’s Doctor was shaky on his feet, at one point needing to rest in a special coffin like box to aid his recuperation.

He swapped the long scarf for the garb of an Edwardian cricketer, with long cream coloured over coat, orange and yellow stripy trousers and a creamy coloured V-neck jumper. He did retain the distinctive embroidered question marks from Tom Baker on his shirt collar however.

Read more…

Before he went grey and started hanging out with Fern Britton on This Morning, Phillip Schofield was best known for hosting Children’s BBC from the legendary Broom Cupboard - otherwise known as the BBC1 continuity room, the place where the announcer sits when telling you what TV programme is on next. By sticking a camera in the room a mini studio was formed from which Phillip and the other Children’s BBC presenters that followed him could introduce the days kids TV shows.

The first broadcast from the Broom Cupboard came on September 9th 1985, and was an immediate success. Not only was Mr. Schofield introducing the programmes he was also responsible for pressing all the buttons and twiddling all the sliders to start the programmes running as well as fading his own image and voice up onto our screens. The whole affair was perhaps a little rough around the edges, but this was part of its appeal and what kept us watching. In fact, one such mistake almost cost Schofield the job, when he mistakenly brought up the BBC1 globe instead of himself, then lost sound when he did return to the screen. He was apparently only saved the chop because the then Head of Presentation found it the most amusing thing he had ever seen.

The fun continued by involving the watching kids too. Viewers could send in their pictures which were pinned to the back wall of the Broom Cupboard, and they could also request word sheets for the theme tunes for some of the popular cartoon shows, which Phil would sing along with live on air - The Mysterious Cities of Gold and Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds spring to mind as good examples of this.

Read more…

Camberwick Green was created in 1966, but was being aired as a regularly part of the BBC’s daytime childrens programming until the mid 1980’s. The show followed the daily lives of the inhabitants of Camberwick Green, Trumptonshire, a quaint village, and represents a way of life in Britain that sadly seems to be in decline. The show was created by Gordon Murray, and each episode was narrated and voiced by Brian Cant.

Each episode of Camberwick Green was centred around a different character from the village, and began with that character emerging from a intricately designed wind up musical box. As a child the suspense of waiting for the character to emerge was almost too much to bare, and you sat there rooting for your favourite to appear, which for many people was Windy Miller, the mill owner and cider drinker. After the character appeared Brian Cant would ask it various questions, which were answered with a nod or shake of the characters head to indicate yes or no.

The animation has a timeless quality to it, with the various inhabitants of Camberwick Green wandering around with a strange long legged gait, that puts me in mind of John Cleese in the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. Some of the characters had wonderfully modelled vehicles to drive around in, which was a chance to throw in a song whilst the character drove from one place to another.

Read more…

The Mr. Men books were created by Roger Hargreaves and first appeared in 1971 and have been firm favourites with kids ever since. The characters themselves were very simply drawn, which was part of their appeal, and the books were very easy for young children to read themselves, making them popular with parents too as a way of getting their children interested in reading. The fact that each characters name was a big clue to what their personality would be like meant that kids could easily remember which were their favourites when choosing a book to read.

In 1981 the Mr. Men were joined by a selection of female characters, resulting in the Little Miss range of books. Whilst the Little Miss characters were clearly wholly new characters in their own right, quite a few of them shared traits with an equivalent Mr. Men character. For example, Mr. Small and Little Miss Tiny. In cases such as this I often thought perhaps these characters were siblings or married or something like that!

In total Roger Hargreaves created 43 Mr. Men and 30 Little Miss characters. When Hargreaves died in 1988, his son Adam carried on the series (Hargreaves originally created the stories for his son, inventing Mr. Tickle to explain to his son what a “tickle” looked like). Adam has added new stories for the original characters and also several new characters since then, including some special edition characters such as Mr. Christmas and Mr. Birthday. There was also a Little Miss Stella that was created for Stella McCartney! 1000 of the books were created and were used as invitations to one of Stella McCartney’s fashion shows.

Read more…

I have mentioned before my dislike of modern shows such as Teletubbies and the way in which they speak gobbledy gook instead of proper language (see the post on The Flumps for more!), but here is a prime example from the 1980’s for which the same could be said. How then can I uphold The Clangers, who also didn’t speak English, yet deride Teletubbies for the same reason? Easy! Firstly, the Teletubbies annoy because they “try” to speak English. The Clangers on the other hand talked in a series of whistling sounds, so there was never any pretence that you were supposed to understand what they were saying. Instead you had the dulcet tones of Oliver Postgate narrating, and the more than obvious actions of the Clangers to tell the story.

Like Smallfilms other productions, such as Bagpuss, the duo of Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker and animator) imbued The Clangers with so much character they could keep children enthralled in their adventures (not to mention The Master from Doctor Who). There were 27 episodes made between the years of 1969 and 1974, but I am certain they were repeated many times during the 1980’s as I have fond memories of watching them as a child.

Read more…

For many Jon Pertwee will be best remembered for playing Timelord Doctor Who, but given that he handed over to Tom Baker when I was only one year old, I will forever remember him best as the scarecrow that came to life, Worzel Gummidge.

Worzel Gummidge was one of my favourite shows as a kid, and was one of those TV programmes that got the whole family together regardless of their age. Worzel was a scarecrow who was made by The Crowman, a strange old man played by Geoffrey Bayldon of Catweazle fame. The Crowman’s scarecrows were very special as they could come to life, although they were supposed to remain lifeless whenever a human was around.

Worzel’s head was made from a Mangelwurzel (a root vegetable, a bit like a large turnip), although more properly, I should say “heads”. Worzel had a number of different heads he could switch between. A sharp twist removed his normal head, and a different head could then be slotted onto his shoulds. Each of these heads looked slightly different, and gave Worzel different abilities. Most often used was his Thinking Head, which gave him an intelligence boost, but he also had a Counting Head and a Brave Head, amongst others.

Read more…