WELCOME BACK! Children’s TV revivals

As the delightful new Clangers begins (5.30pm, CBeebies), more than 40 years after the original series ended, we look at some other children’s favourites that are being brought bang up to date…

Thunderbirds In April this year, ITV remade the Supermarionation classic, nearly 50 years on. While the show has had a 21st-century makeover (Thunderbirds Are Go, Saturdays, 8am, ITV), there are several nods to the much-loved original: David Graham, who voiced Parker way back when, reprises his role; co-creator Sylvia Anderson will guest as Lady Penelope’s aunt in an upcoming episode; and Matt Zimmerman, the original voice of Alan Tracy (right), guest starred in a story that was shown last month. Teletubbies An almost instant hit when it launched in 1997, with an estimated one billion viewers worldwide, this preschool charmer was not without its hitches, including the BBC’s decision to replace the original actor inside the Tinky Winky costume (‘I am proud of my work for them,’ said Dave Thompson. ‘I was the first to fall off my chair and roll over. I took all the risks.’). Listen out for Jim Broadbent, Fearne Cotton and Jane Horrocks in the voice cast when the Teletubbies return later this year. The Wombles Also due back this year are Elisabeth Beresford’s gentle environmentalists, first filmed in stop-motion in 1973. The show has been remade before, in 1997, with new Wombles joining originals such as Tomsk (below left), and mainly Canadian voice actors replacing the familiar tones of Bernard Cribbins. Mike Batt (who wrote the theme music and whose company owns most of the rights to the Wombles) claims that CGI will keep the original’s appeal, but with a modern twist: ‘It will look more like stop-motion, but with great fur.’