This week: 3 “Great” British Childrens TV shows

As a kid growing up in the late 80’s/early 90’s I had the privilege of being exposed to some particularly great shows. Whilst in every generation there seems to come a new phenomenon; whether it’s Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine or even Tin Tin, for me there was always certain shows close to my heart. Here they are in no particular order:

Bananaman
Voiced by the Goodies and based on the comics of the late John Geering, the adventures of Eric Twinge and his crime fighting alter ego ‘bananaman’ stirred me into a pathological hatred of any other form of fruit. It is because of Eric’s incapable love for the news reader Fiona, and her subsequent love for bananaman that I was known to keep devouring large quantities of the monkey fruit.

SuperTed

At one time in my life the ‘welshness’ of shows like SuperTed and Fireman Sam made my English accent my mortal enemy. In trying to refute it, I was dreaming of becoming either the Ted (whispering the secret magic word for my power) or subsequently his space-dust empowered companion Spotty. What was particular haunting was the sideline the creators made in producing exceedingly tasty SuperTed Vitamin Tablets; unfortunately rumours of your friend getting their stomach pumped abounded far too frequently.

Poddington Peas

BBC’s healthy obsession in combining cartoons with fruits and vegetables seemed to strike a particular chord between me and my young friends. I expect that during the airing of this show Birdseye sold more peas than ever. The peas story ‘down at the bottom of the garden’, where all garden objects were gargantuan beasts, also caused a shift in attitudes towards allotments. The once boring, banal plots suddenly became the centre of the universe for subverted young minds like my own. I want those hours back.