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Childrens television programmes of the past

Trainspotter

Being born in the fifties, and having my formative years in the sixties and seventies, I believe some of the best television programmes were those made for children. I am a great fan of programmes made for children, and even now think there is some quality work there.But some of the programmes of rhe past excelled in real quality.

For starting this thread I will include one or two of my favourites from the sixties to the eighties.

I will come back to this later with others, I think my avatar would indicate one of my favourites so that goes without saying, for the moment.

The Owl service, a programme made in the late sixties, a mystery about a tea service and the remote.locarion it was set in.

Follyfoot, with its theme tune about a farm for retired horses, the characer of Dora every lad in my year fell in love with

Children of the Stones, a very creepy tale set in Avebury, with similarities to the Wicker Man

The Witches and the Grinnygog, a tale of a gargoyle with a seemingly strange power.

Worzel Gummidge, with Jon Pertwee and Una Stubbs at their best.

Others to come, but opening up to reminiscences from other people.

  • in reply to moggsy

    Alan Garner wrote one more story to complement one of his earlier novels.

  • in reply to nexus9

    Wow, Elidor, haven't heard anyone mention that since I was a child. My dad taught me to read before I started school and I read that book aged about 3-4 ..... hyperlexia anyone ??? ;-) Loved the book and now you mention it The Owl Service too ....

  • There are only 4 kids programmes from the 80's that matter:

    He-Man

    Thundercats

    Transformers

    M. A. S. K

    Having watched He-Man on netflix the magic of you "may also like" has brought She-rah into my life, I disregarded this as a child as girly He-Man, it has all the attributes of a magical 80's cartoon. 

  • When I started this thread I had no idea how popular it would be.  But I think it shows that a lot of us do really have an 'innocent' streak, me included.  And when I see replies that say certain programmes reduce the poster to tears, that is also me!

    I will now add a few more of my favourite Children's Programmes:

    Carries War:  This had in the lead character an actress who later starred in the nurse soap opera 'Angels'.  Without looking her up, I think her name was Joanne Munroe.  In Carries War was a character called Mr Jonny, who at the start was mute but certainly not stupid.  In the final episode, Carrie returned to the farm several years later and Mr Jonny had learned to speak.  In retrospect, I think Mr Jonny had autistic characteristics, but I would need to watch the programme again to see if was some other learning disability.

    Five Children and It - I tthink this knocked spots off the film version made few years later.  Written by the author of The Railway Children, E Nesbitt, together with The Phoenix and the Carpet which was another excellent childrens drama series of the 1980s, and a similar sort of story to Five Children and It.  The BBC version of the Railway Children had Jenny Agutter in the same role she played in the film and was also very memorable.

    There was also an early version of Monty Python called Do Not Adjust Your Set, which had Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and David Jason, with animation by Terry Gilliam.  A musical interlude was included by The Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band, and there was a continuing story 'Captain Fantastic' starring David Jason.  Some of the programme, especially one song as visualised by the Bonzo's certainly would not get through the politically correct brigade.  This programme introduced me to the Bonzo's and was a great fan of theirs.  Members of the band included Neil Innes (who wrote the songs for 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail and appeared in that film), and Viv Stanshall, who sadly died in a house fire about twenty years ago.

  • in reply to Trainspotter

    I’m obsessed with Dr Who I love the show old and new.Totally obsessed with the audios which are made by Big Finsh Productions,they are awesom.I get criticised for liking such things because I would rather listen than watch.

  • in reply to Trainspotter

    Me again (a week later!); sorry to bother you, but I am seeing if typing it in this way will work: The DickVanDyke Show...

    ...So far, yes it did. 'Bye for now anyway. (Another Thread run out of steam, maybe?)

  • in reply to Yttrium

    Perhaps it will accept Richard Van Sea-Wall.

    How can an actor of such highly acclaimed films such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang get censored by the NAS or forum software.  The thought never struck me about his name being worthy of the language police!

  • in reply to Trainspotter

    This forum does not like *** Van ***!   Smiley

  • During the early 1960's, many programmes from America were shown during the children's programming slot, although not really children's programmes

    There were Westerns such as Tales of Wells Fargo, The Lone Ranger, and Bronco.  And comedies such as  The *** Van *** Show, Hogans Heroes, and my favourite The Adventures of Hiram Holliday which was a sort of parody of James Bond in some sort of way. 

    Hiram Holliday:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIS2tVeXJ8w

    (the advertisments may be a bit annoying)

  • Secret Squirrel and Squiddly Diddly always had their cartoon shows one after the other. As a small child I had the bright idea that they could both appear in the same show with the Squirrel solving a mystery for Squiddly. I wrote a long letter about this genius idea to the television company but they never replied.   Disappointed

  • born 1965 and the tv shows i watched

    Barnaby The Bear , champion the wonder horse , Casey Jones , Noggin the Nog , Finger Mouse , Pipkins , bagpuss, Worzel Gummidge

    The Flumps , Playaway, The Record Breakers , the secret Garden , HR Puffanstuff , Banana Splits , Here Come The Double Deckers

    Renta Ghost, Chorlton and the wheelies , Crystal Tipps and Alistair , Just William  , Screen Test ,  Help it's The Hair Bear Bunch ,

    Metal Mickey , A.L.F ,  Hong Kong Phooey ,  Roobarb And Custard and on and on i could go i spent more time sat infront of the tv than

    playing out as i never really got on with other kids

  • in reply to Giddy

    I had the DVD boxset a few years back.

  • in reply to Giddy

    They are on YouTube too. The one where a damn bursts in a heavy storm spooked me out. Like a tsunami. The train almost did not make it out of the valley. Most of the other episodes did not register much as they were essentially spaghetti western confrontations between good guy and bad guy on rail, not horseback. 

  • in reply to Arran

    ...Greetings, anyone, I did not look at these other replies when I posted during the day, here, yet I mentioned this. I was wondering if it was alright to mention programmes made after the 1980's or to start a separate Thread about them?  My own current favourites would be Pokemon, Power Rangers, and "Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and CatNoir". However - Transformers, My Little Pony, and Alvin And The Chipmunks date across the Eighties and so sort of count here but not count...?

  • Really late to this thread, but great to see so many replies - and so many programmes recalled!

    Trainspotter, I'm a Gerry Anderson fan too (especially of "Thunderbirds").  I think one of the attractions was that most of his productions were set many years into the future, and there were always futuristic vehicles and tech in the programmes!

    I was also a keen animation fan (and still very much so), so always liked the productions from the Hanna-Barbera studios, and also Depatie-Freleng and Filmation.

    Vision On was very enjoyable and inventive, and in the early 70s I used to have my tape recorder ready each week to record some of the varied music they used to use as backing.

    One programme I haven't seen mentioned yet ran from about 1965-1970, called "Tom Tom".  It mainly seemed to focus on science and technology, and I was very disappointed when they dropped the show in 1970.  The programme's theme tune was by John Baker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, of which I was also a big fan.

    I'll try to search my memory for other children's programmes, but in the meantime, very much enjoying the lists from others here!

  • in reply to nexus9

    casey jones tootin and a rolling at the throttle of the cannon ball express

  • in reply to SciFiGreg

    they have the star trek animated series no netflix

  • Greetings, and More from myself.
    Animation: Hokey Wolf, Wally Gator, The New Schmoo, He-Man, She-Ra, BraveStarr, ThunderCats, Transformers, The Animals of Farthing Wood, Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds, Around The World With Willy Fogg (Willy Fogg as a Lion). I never watched "Mysterious Cities Of Gold" because it went on far too looooooooong...
    For live Action: Woof!, The Goodies, RentaGhost, Metal Mickey, The Littlest Hobo, Blake's Seven, Sapphire And Steel. (To this day, I have no idea why I hated "Tomorrow People"...)
    There are some Adult programmes mentioned in this Thread, but to list all of them would chronicle more than Fifty Years...? (And I often think of starting a parallel Thread allowing *current* Television Programmes...)

    However, I shall sign off now, because it is Daylight, and also I do not want that scary "Vision On" Logo to spot me...(!)