Kids' telly in the 1970s was nothing like the slick product that children watch now where the fresh-faced front people all look like Hollyoaks stars.
Our entertainment on the box - and they were big wooden framed things -was presented by people th
at looked like they'd come straight from a festival with their huge flared jeans and sideburns like Jimi Hendrix.
And let's be honest, there was more than just a hint of the old psychedelia about them. Those stonecats like Derek Griffiths and Floela Benjamin were pure fun with their mad face-pulling and 'performing arts' movements. And the warm, homely tones and crazy storytelling of Bernard Cribbins.
The programmes themselves - classics such as Roobarb & Custard, Scooby Doo 'like, illuminous seaweed Scoob!' Mr. Ben and the mysterious shopkeeper in his little 'Madchester' hat, the Clangers, Herbs and Jamie & the Magic Torch were pretty far out. Noggin the Nog. Ivor the Engine. The Magic Roundabout - Time for bed, said Dougal - absolutely great television. The mice in the mouse organ. Trumpton with Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.
The lights, colours and strange noises. And they wonder why we became the Rave Generation? Kids' TV hit a low in the 80s with the irritating Timmy Mallet, Roland Rat and the introduction of Scrappy Doo.
But it bounced back up with Saturday morning classics such as Ant & Dec and Dick & Dom whose humour appealed as much to adults as children. And I am assured by a mate that the odd character Maccapacca in 'In the Night Garden' now delights his daughter. One of my Godchildren loved the Tweenies and my neice was a fan of the Teletubbies.
Simon Cowell-type clones don't impress in the strange, strange world of the wide-eyed child's mind. But they do love a laughing baby's face in the sun over weird, dream-like, plastic green hills. Power to the children. Hail the imagination.
