Published on 12, July, 2020
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.
I never saw the series The Owl Service but I read the book and loved the book Elidor too.
I grew up on Dr Who and remember my mother getting excited to see the Daleks as it was coming on. It seems horribly overdone nowadays. Thunderbirds were definitely go, Stingray I did not understand the plot at all. Star Trek was a fave too.
No one has mentioned Jackanory, some of the stories were good.
A radio series we followed at school really intrigued me for its spookiness, about a girl who draws whilst ill in bed, she visits the drawings in her dreams and meets a boy there called Mark. She drew some evil stones with eyes and she and Mark have to escape them. They get to a lighthouse but then the following week there was no ending to the story and I felt so cheated!
Decades later I tracked the book down on Amazon and did find out how it ended.
I got the impression my mother enjoyed many children's programmes more than we the kids did. Bewitched, Casey Jones, now someone mentioned it, White Horses too, most SF series, though I loved the SF too.
My parents were not keen on letting me watch Batman in case it gave me ideas.
And I was born in 1959. I envied Andy pansy's onesie. I remember the schaltzy Flipper, the song anyway. Belle and Sebastian. Robon Crusoe, Tarzan and Daktari caught my attention. Later on, Wacky Races and Top Cat likewise, and Tom and Jerry. I was nicknamed after Scooby-Doo, which I hated at the time but after all, he is quite a gothic hound.
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 ....
Alan Garner wrote one more story to complement one of his earlier novels.