Why don’t they make them like they used to? A
ESEARCH from King’s College, London published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says the more we sleep the fewer sugary snacks we consume, reducing risk of being overweight and other health problems.
The recommended sleep minimum is seven hours a night although many have less.
I may be dim but it seems self evident that if you are asleep you cannot be raiding the fridge or eating kebab and chips from a van in town.
But at least we now know how to solve obesity and aid dieting: give everybody sleeping pills to ensure a healthy eight hours in the land of nod. PANEL of experts have picked the top 20 British children’s TV programmes of all time.
Blue Peter, Grange Hill and Newsround were the top three.
Also included were Tiswas, Multi Coloured Swap Shop, Vision On, Live and Kicking, Play School and Crackerjack, best known for how many cabbages a schoolboy or girl could hold.
The glaring omissions are the Trumptonshire trilogy from the 1960s: Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley, and The Magic Roundabout. How could they not be listed? Perhaps the criteria that got Blue Peter top spot was boring, worthy and how to make a three piece suite out of stickyback plastic. Grange Hill deserved it’s place as relevant youth drama based in reality, and so did Tiswas for its anarchy, Sally James and Spit the Dog.
But no mention for the favourites I watched with my elder daughter, then the repeats with my younger daughter, and again on my own on quiet afternoons when no one was looking. Camberwick Green launched the trilogy in 1966, with characters PC McGarry and Windy Miller; Trumpton followed a year later, with Chippy Minton the carpenter and Captain Flack leading the fire brigade; and Chigley rounded off the series in 1969, with its biscuit factory and Lord Belborough of Winkstead Hall and his butler Brackett, who operated a train through Trumptonshire. Goon, here’s the quiz question everyone asks about the series: can you name the fire brigade? The Magic Roundabout, broadcast in the 1960s and 70s, had another cast of memorable characters with Dougal, Zebedee, Ermintrude and guitar carrying Dylan, who seemed to be stoned most of the time. In fact, it seemed to reflect psychedelic hippiedom
Perhaps I was impressed with these children’s programmes because they were so superior to the programmes of previous generations
and adults liked children.
At its peak it had eight million viewers and was so popular it became a movie in 2005 with Bill Nighy perfectly cast as the voice of Dylan. Peace man. Perhaps I was impressed with these children’s programmes because they were so superior to the programmes of previous generations such as Muffin The Mule and Mr Pastry. What were your favourites? The answer to the Trumpton question is: Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew,Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub. The Pugh brothers were twins.