The Demon Headmaster

All of these were must-see for me, and I’d like to see them again: Watt on Earth, Alfonso Bonzo and its spinoff, Billy Webb’s Amazing Stories, Kevin and Co., T-Bag, Simon and the Witch, Woof!, Jonny Briggs, and Uncle Jack, in which Fenella Fielding was wonderfully sinister as The Vixen. Jimmi Harkishin, who now plays Dev in Corrie, was in it too.

I’d still love to see Spatz and Kappatoo again. Maybe a compliation DVD of Fun House in a special edition Mullet-style slipcase…

Shows like How2 and Bad Influence were always popular in our house, too. Wonder what Nam Rood’s up to these days..?

I was always partial to The Girl from Tomorrow and its sequel series. Haven’t seen it in years though so probably wouldn’t hold up too well these days.

Used to love Bad Influence as a kid I think Nam Rood is now in The Royal as a porter

Demon Headmaster was much better in book form methinks but I did enjoy the TV show. I used to love Knightmare (remember that one boys and girls?) and Maid Marian and her Merry Men (which I’m ashamed to say, even though I watched Red Dwarf as a kid too, I didn’t recognise Danny JJ in the dreads!) Woof! indeed was fab.

I remember watching The Simpsons back in ‘91/’92 when it only used to be shown on a Sunday evening on Sky One at 6pm, two episodes. I couldn’t fall asleep that night as me any my little brothers kept singing ‘Do the Bartman!’

>Used to love Bad Influence as a kid I think Nam Rood is now in The Royal as a porter

Yes, you’re right! And Nam Rood is Door Man backwards… :o

Ah, the good old days… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg-E2jXVx5k

Don’t think Star Fleet was ever released on DVD……including the Brian May theme tune.

What about Children Of The Dogstar. I think that was it’s title. Scared me shitless!!

First time I ever heard of the Scorpion! (Probably not that unsurprising, considering.)

I was always partial to The Girl from Tomorrow and its sequel series. Haven’t seen it in years though so probably wouldn’t hold up too well these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJvO7HGpqEo

I remember a fairly weird kids sitcom called Palace Hill. Never seem to find much info about it though.

Also… Round The Bend is a classic.

Weird… just searched for Palace Hill, and got the completely unrelated Round The Bend in the same vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq9UoMj6l0U

Palace Hill was made by the same team as Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It. There’s some Palace Hill on YouTube, but, alas, no YMWLI. Gawd bless Central Junior Television Workshop.

I have about half a show of Round The Bend, which is a treasured possession. It was made by Yorkshire, who also did Behind The Bike Sheds, featuring a young Tony Slattery. I still have the annual: I should scan it in, really, as it’s great.

Oh, and one of the dancers in the show talks about a young DJ in Leeds called Tim Westwood. I wonder if it’s the same bloke? :)

>Also… Round The Bend is a classic.

I knew I forgot something! Yes, a Round The Bend DVD release would be ace.

Wonder what Neil Buchanan is up to nowadays… Art Attack was required viewing in my drum. I still sometimes draw and realise I’m doing things I first learned in Art Attack…

Finders Keepers was good too, in its prime. Oh, Motor Mouth and Ghost Train were my Saturday morning TV magazine show choices. In fact, I guess I was always a CITV viewer rather than a CBBC viewer, only switching to the BBC for the last half hour when CITV (if I remember correctly) went off the air. 5.05pm, if my brain isn’t playing tricks on me.

For some reason, I didn’t base my post-school viewing on the individual programs. There was channel loyalty there; I picked my brand and stuck to it.

SO how bout everyone else? Were you a CITV loyalist? A CBBC patriot? Or one of those fence sitting channel hoppers?

CBBC mostly. I think The Real GhostBusters, Knightmare and, um, Sooty were the only thing I watched on CITV.

CBBC had Turtles, Grange Hill, Byker Grove, Maid Marian, The Movie Game, Round the Twist, Johnny Briggs, Rugrats, Alfonso Bonzo…

Always preferred the CBBC Saturday shows as well. They seemed a bit slicker than their ITV counterparts. Plus, they had Trevor and Simon. We don’t do duvets!

Stop making me feel old!! What about The Flumps or Battle OF The Planets or Animal Magic or The Red Hand Gang….

…I could go on….and on…..and on……..!!!

I used to watch a cartoon called The Bluffers… does anyone remember it??? (I have a Facebook group with 95 members!)… it was about a gang of animals living in a forest under threat from the “crazed maniac” Clandestino… wonderful hippy, anti-capitalist cartoon from The Netherlands, I think!
Also of course Fun House, Get Your Own Back, all that stuff…

> CBBC had Turtles, Grange Hill, Byker Grove, Maid Marian, The Movie Game, Round the Twist, Johnny Briggs, Rugrats, Alfonso Bonzo…

Yeah, but CITV had Press Gang, Childrens Ward, Round The Bend, Mike & Angelo, Palace Hill, The Sooty Show, T-Bag, Knightmare, Raggy Dolls, Count Duckula, How 2, Fun House, Real Ghostbusters and, dare I say, The Ratties??

Oh, and don’t you open that Trap Door. There’s something down there.

And Button Moon!

Come on, CITV wins hands down!

My brother was on Bad Influence!!!! It was shot at Kirkstall Road and his class was chosen to go to be background fodder.

In terms of Saturday Morning for ITV. Motormouth, What’s Up Doc and Sm:tv Live were brilliant

BBC had Going Live and Live and Kicking.

They had their eras…

As far as station loyalty goes, TBH I alternated, but stuck mostly with CITV.

Going Live! was just great. With the exception of a few eps of Live & Kicking, I never much followed Saturday morning TV after that.

I hope that one day, they’ll be a digital channel devoted to all these old shows. Imagine how great that could be. With the same schedules, and ads too. :D

> I’d still love to see Spatz and Kappatoo again.

I meant to include Spatz in my list. It starred Jennifer Calvert (Loretta in Gunmen) and Emile Charles was in at least one episode.

Should we do some work into how to make this happen?

The W word? How do you suggest going about it?

I think I started off being a staunch CITVist, and moved over to CBBC around the age of 8 or 9, when the likes of The Demon Headmaster and Aquilla were on CBBC. As for Saturday mornings, I always preferred the more chaotic ITV offerings - in particular, Scratchy & Co.

Aquila

I’ve just found out that this was written by Andrew Norriss, as was Woof!, Bernard’s Watch, Matt’s Millions and of course Brittas. Andrew Norriss is fucking awesome.

> Should we do some work into how to make this happen?

As far as I know, you can purchase broadcast quality copies of many of these old shows from the ITV archive. Recently, I heard someone bought an entire series for around £600-700. But actually getting individual series/compilations released on home video… That would REALLY cost.

I’ve just found out that this was written by Andrew Norriss, as was Woof!, Bernard’s Watch, Matt’s Millions and of course Brittas. Andrew Norriss is fucking awesome.

And Richard Fegen, don’t forget! At the very least, Aquila, Bernard’s Watch and Brittas were all co-written by him, too.

(Fegen and Norris are clients of ours. Have I not mentioned the Aquila thing before? I found that amusing when I discovered it, too)

Can I throw Channel 4 into the mix for their excellent importing of foreign/Nickelodeon stuff? Namely Pugwall, Saved by the Bell, Eerie Indiana, assorted Nicktoons, Renford Rejects, and so on. Kudos to BBC1 for nabbing Clarissa, though. Kudos to ABSOLUTELY NOBODY for never showing The Adventures of Pete & Pete on a UK terrestrial station.

Reminiscing about kids’ shows never gets old, does it? I torrented season three of Saved by the Bell recently. I really don’t ever get tired of vicariously re-experiencing elements of my childhood.

PS - Doctor Who Mag have confirmed that Terrence “Demon Headmaster” Hardiman is in ep two of series fnarg. YES.

> Ah, the good old days… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg-E2jXVx5k

Hah, I came across that exact clip not long ago! I remembered that just before I got my Mega Drive for Xmas ‘95, I saw the Scorpion on sale in a local indie games shop. (I actually briefly considered getting it instead of the MD!). So a while ago I had a look online for information about the Scorpion, and that Bad Influence clip was one of the first things I found.

Off the Telly interviewed Andy Crane a few years ago.

> SO how bout everyone else? Were you a CITV loyalist? A CBBC patriot? Or one of those fence sitting channel hoppers?

CITV. Mainly for the Warner Bros cartoons - Taz-Mania, Tiny Toons, Batman, Animaniacs and Freakazoid. Of the home-grown cartoons, they had Treasure Island, Captain Zed, and The Dreamstone. Of the live-action kids’ programmes, I think Rolf’s Cartoon Club, Woof!, Knightmare and Art-Attack were pretty much the only ones I watched.

I remember I started watching weekday CITV not long before they replaced the on-screen presenters with just voiceovers…

I’d always imagined him playing The Master

I’m glad to see someone else who likes Saved by the bell thought I was the only one

I found an old tape of the first 2 series of the Demon Headmaster a year or two back, so myself and some friends all sat down to re-watch it over some drinks. We’d never realised just how terrible the child acting was, but that made it incredibly funny, especially when a little bit sloshed. We’d also forgotten that Danny is in the first series as the quiz host.

>I’m glad to see someone else who likes Saved by the bell thought I was the only one

It was great, especially around the time of the third season (the ones where they work at the beach club! The one where they get fake IDs and go to a really bad early ’90s style nightclub! The utterly batshit insane one where Zack dreams their band become massive superstars!) - it’s just The New Class that sullies the memory (not least because it recycled most of the plots… over and over and OVER again), and Peter Engel’s other shows that were cheap knockoffs. Although California Dreams was quite good to start with, when it was a bit different, before… turning into a cheap knockoff. Oh god. I know far too much about Peter Engel teen sitcoms, by the way. Blame cable - not only was there Nickelodeon (Clarissa! Pete and Pete! Sister Sister! Doug! Rocko! Ren and Stimpy! Even bloody Rugrats!), but you had all the Engel stuff showing on TCC (which later became Trouble) - so SBTB, California Dreams, Hang Time, City Guys, USA High… the lot.

I’m going to go and cry in a corner now.

OH MAN BUT I’VE JUST REMEMBERED GAMES WORLD ON SKY. It felt like a brilliant little secret from those who didn’t have Sky or cable, and there was SO MUCH MORE gameplaying on it than there was on Gamesmaster. Also this.

I loved Games World David Walliams was funnier on kids TV than in Little Britain (in my opinion) anyone else remember Incredible Games where he played the lift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYK-1ICTdYk

I had a YouTube account full of loads of The Games Mistress segments from Games World it got deleted after I uploaded a couple of interveiws with Diane Youdale from the Sky1 Gladiators documentary

ahh Jonny Briggs, that was great. always used to watch that. ITV did have one classic which no one has mentioned yet: Inspector Gadget!

ahh Jonny Briggs, that was great. always used to watch that. ITV did have one classic which no one has mentioned yet: Inspector Gadget!

> I knew I forgot something! Yes, a Round The Bend DVD release would be ace.

Indeed it would. Dizzy Heights is another one I forgot to mention. And does anybody remember Marlene Marlowe Investigates starring Cate Copstick?

This is worth getting if you liked T-Bag, despite there not being any clips in it: http://www.fantomfilms.co.uk/dvd/cult/tbag.htm

For those wanting comfort that great kids TV is still being made, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Ed and Oucho’s Excellent Inventions on Saturday mornings, which gives me more laughs than the vast majority of “adult” “comedy”.

And for the female readers: Ed Petrie is *gorgeous*.

I probably would, actually.

Archer’s Goon

>I probably would, actually.

It’s that cheeky grin he’s got, isn’t it?

That grin, close up: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/cbbcstars/presenters/ed_petrie/downloads/wp_la...