The Mysterious Cities of Gold

THE MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD
Made by: BRB International
Shown on: BBC1
Years shown: mid 80s

Theme tune: “Children of the sun, someday soon you’re gonna see/That your destiny holds the secret, holds the key…”

If you thought Tolstoy indulged in complex and sprawling sagas, here was a children’s cartoon which came a close second. The Mysterious Cities of Gold spanned an incredible 39 episodes, as it followed the exploits of young Esteban, an explorer’s son, on his travels through South America in search of his father. Esteban was known as a Child of the Sun, which meant that he was able to exercise some power and control over the fiery orb. He met Zia, a young Inca girl who was also looking for her dad, and they discovered that they both own similar necklaces - in fact, the necklaces were two halves of a whole, and when fitted together they formed the key to Eldorado, the lost Cities of Gold. Along for the ride with them was Tau, a boy who was also descended from Inca people, and his parrot, whose chief purpose was to provide comic relief.

Of course, where there’s gold, there are gold-diggers, namely the Spanish explorers, who Esteban was travelling with. Mendoza is Esteban’s kindly guardian, but there were those who are not so honourable - Commander Gomez, Gaspard, and his two brain-dead henchmen, Sancho (not Panza) and Pedro.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold, with its poor-quality English dubbing, was a big hit when shown on Children’s BBC, proving that children do in fact have good attention spans, but are simply choosy about what they use it on. The episodes were genuinely engaging, and I could never wait for the next one - I was absolutely desperate for them to find the gold. Philip Schofield was so taken by it that he had lyric-sheets printed up so children could write in for them and sing along to the theme at home. I didn’t go so far as to write in for one, I’m sorry to say.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 9/10

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