From Andy Pandy to Robin Hood… our TV favourites
Every issue, Yours writer Marion Clarke will be reliving the best bits of our lives. This fortnight she shares the joys of children’s television
‘Everyone loved Andy Pandy, who used to wave us a wobbly goodbye’
Like many readers, June Gilbert remembers exactly which day of the week her favourite children’s programmes were on: “Picture Book with Patricia Driscoll on Mondays, Andy Pandy on Tuesdays, Bill and Ben on Wednesdays, Rag, Tag and Bobtail on Thursdays and The Woodentops on Fridays. For some reason, I didn’t like the Woodentops and their spotty dog.”
Mary Smith disagrees: “I loved Jenny and Willie, the twins in the Woodentops, and Spotty the dog. My least favourite was Rag, Tag and Bobtail. On Saturdays I loved the episodes of Billy Bunter and his friends at Greyfriars School.”
Everyone loved Andy Pandy, who used to wave us a wobbly goodbye. Sue Dewhurst’s mother claimed the programme was the only time she sat still and quiet. But Anne Tamulonis was puzzled by the puppet in the stripey blue outfit: “I remember asking my mum whether Andy Pandy was a girl or a boy – I wanted him to be a girl – and she gave me an open-ended answer.” Inevitably, we outgrew Andy Pandy – or did we? Ann Rowe writes: “When I was very young my father was working night shifts so it was him that I sat with to watch TV programmes such as Andy Pandy and Muffin the Mule. Years later I was ill with mumps and dozing at home on the sofa. When I woke up, my dad informed me that I had missed Andy Pandy, then told me the whole storyline in great detail. The only problem was, I was 13 years old!” Mrs S Pitt’s father was concerned for a different reason: “As we only had BBC on our television and our neighbours had the new ITV channel, I was allowed to go next door once a week to watch Lassie with their son. Every week I would come home in tears because the programme always had a tear-jerker ending so my dad banned me from watching it because he didn’t like to see me upset.
“I had to beg him each week to let me go and I promised I wouldn’t get upset again, but of course I still came home tearful!” When Bren Morris was six, her family’s Saturday teatime ritual was banana sandwiches and Dr Who on television: “It was terrifying. With the Daleks on Westminster Bridge and the Cybermen also in London, my parents had trouble persuading me it was safe to leave our home in Tottenham. As for the Autons – shop mannequins that came to life – I ran past every shop window for months afterwards.”
Alan Keeling reckons the Fifties and Sixties were the golden age of children’s television: “Although I loved Westerns such as The Lone Ranger, I was more keen to watch swashbuckling series such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene. Then I became hooked on William Tell with Conrad Phillips playing the legendary Swiss hero, Robert Shaw playing Captain Dan Tempest in The Buccaneers and an armour-clad Roger Moore in Ivanhoe.”
Robin Hood was also popular with Jane Dukes and her brother, Ian: “Every Monday we had boiled eggs for tea and to this day we still occasionally refer to Mondays as ‘boiled eggs and Robin Hood’. In our living room we had a walk-in cupboard which housed our toys. When the theme music came on, Ian would disappear into the cupboard to dress up as Robin Hood, emerging complete with bow and arrow just as the programme was finishing!” Charmaine Fletcher liked Bizzy Lizzy, the story of a little girl with a magical dress: “She only had to touch its decorative flower to enjoy four wishes. Her first wish was for her Eskimo doll, Little Mo, to come to life. Then their enthralling adventures began.
I was so enrapt by the programme that my mother made me a replica of the dress and found me an Eskimo doll of my own.” Cartoon characters from Yogi Bear to Captain Pugwash have always been a sure-fire hit with youngsters. Valerie Poole’s favourite was The Huckleberry Hound Show: “The series featured two mice, Pixie and Dixie, and Mr Jinks the cat. Pixie and Dixie always managed to outsmart Mr Jinks who was heard at the end saying, ‘I hates those meeces to pieces’.”
For a whole generation of children, the weekend started with Crackerjack and Marjorie Edwards has a great story to tell about the programme. “Five o’clock on Friday nights were special as Mum sat us down in front of the small black-andwhite TV that we hired from Radio Rental for 19 shillings a week. We were given a biscuit and a tangerine and we were in heaven! “The BBC approached our school for a girl to appear on Crackerjack. My best friend, Sheila, was chosen because she was sporty and clever. She was told to wear her school uniform and long white socks. She didn’t have any white socks so I lent her a pair of mine.
“On the night she appeared we duly cheered her on. When she was in the line-up for the obstacle race, the camera panned down to show her legs – and my white socks! Oh, the excitement of seeing my best friend and my socks on live
TV!”