Henry's Cat

HENRY'S CAT
Made by: Bob Godfrey
Shown on: BBC1
Years shown: 1983 onwards
Theme tune: “He knows everything about nothing/And not too much about that/Hen-e-ry, Hen-er-y, you must know Hen-e-ry’s Cat”

One day at school, when I was eight, we had to write about our favourite and worst TV programmes. My worst was Henry’s Cat. It frustrated and annoyed me. Bob Godfrey’s workshop had already made the acclaimed weird-fest, Roobarb and Custard, as well as Noah and Nelly in the seventies, but now he was running out of ideas. I was a practical child who liked rational explanations and straight-forward answers; so who the hell was Henry? Why did we never see him? Did he know what his flea-bitten moggy was getting up to? Well. Henry was a bright yellow cat, not too intelligent, who used to say “Owww” a lot. His best friend was the delightfully-named Chris Rabbit, blue in colour, but there was also Douglas Dog, Denise Duck, Ted Tortoise, Sammy Snail, Pansy Pig, Mosey Mouse and the exotic-sounding - but actually quite xenophobic when you think about it - Philippe Frog. Keeping law and order around the place, and doing a pretty below-par job of it, were Constable Bulldog and the cruel Farmer Giles. All kinds of wild escapades were embarked upon, with Henry locking paws with the world’s only intelligent sheep, Rum Baa Baa; but they usually turned out to be daydreams, and in fact the animals had spent all day lazing around the garden, which was also a common twist with the kids in Fame too.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 2/10

(Thanks to www.henryscat.com for the borrowed pic)