Which classic kids’ TV shows could be on the list for a 21st Century revival?
Chorlton and the Wheelies
If part of the appeal of The Clangers is its mystery and weirdness and a sense that we can’t be quite sure what’s going on, then surely Chorlton and the Wheelies has just that same appeal.
Even the premise is mad: it’s about a sort of dragon thing called Chorlton who lives with little tricycle people and they’re all threatened by a big green witch who lives in a tower along with her talking telescope…
I’ve seen many episodes of it over the years, but other than honing a half-way decent impersonation of the witch I’m still no nearer discovering what exactly was going on!
Jackanory
I know it seems illogical in this modern age of fast-moving images, and short attention spans, and action and colour and noise, but… young children still love to be told a story.
Jackanory is perhaps the simplest format of them all – get a good story, give it to a good reader, and point a camera at them. They used to chuck in a few pictures of course, a few sound effects and some music perhaps, but that was only ever window-dressing to the core appeal which was simply being told a rattling good yarn.
It goes without saying to anybody who ever heard Kenneth Williams recounting the tales of Agaton Sax (I can hear his Aunt Matilda voice now) – or Tom Baker’s doom-laden Iron Man – or the lyrical tones of Little Nose (read in that distinctive Scots burr by author John Grant) – or Bernard Cribbins telling all those stories of Arabel and her raven, Mortimer….
Though we might like to think fings ain’t what they used to be (spelling and grammar for a start) there are actually still a lot of really good kids books being written, and there are still a lot of really great ‘voices’ who could read them. Not to mention of course that the legendary Mr Cribbins is still with us!
And because I’d hate myself for not championing it, even though I don’t think it will ever come back…
Grange Hill
The recent too-young death of Terry Sue-Patt (Benny Green) briefly reminded us all of what an influential show it had been in its heyday, when Grange Hill was one of the absolute corner stones of the BBC’s Children’s Department.
When it first arrived there was nothing like it, and even in later years when things like Byker Grove and Hollyoaks had meant that it was less cutting-edge than it had once been, there was still a lot of strong material in Grange Hill – a parent dying from HIV, a pupil becoming disabled, testicular cancer…
I would dearly love to see Phil Redmond and Grange Hill prove me wrong and for it to come back and be a hit. But if we think back to its glory days, when it courted controversy in its no-nonsense portrayal of school life… It’s hard now to think of what it could do which would be shocking enough in that same way, but which would still be allowed on a children’s TV show.
Maybe some things are best left in the past. Flippin’ ‘eck Tucker!
Which classic kids’ TV shows would you like to see revived? Let us know below…