Pob's Programme

POB'S PROGRAMME
Made by: Ragdoll Productions
Shown on: Channel 4
Years shown: 1985-88

God save us, it’s Pob. This was a creation of Anne Wood, the same woman who ‘blessed’ us with The Teletubbies in 1997, and of course both shows have one thing in common: none of the characters speak properly. This is an old debate between parents, programme-makers and watchdog groups - should kids’ TV characters speak like the children themselves (i.e. an approximation of English, but garbled), or should they speak a real, intelligible language? Whichever way, this was only one annoying aspect of Pob’s Programme. Pob was a cross between Pinocchio, Mr Punch and an alien; he wore a striped pink and yellow knitted jumper, and he had pink hair. Anne Wood dreamed him up while travelling on the London Underground, and seeing a child breathe on the window and write their name in it. Pob went one step further - he spat on the window, which was genuinely quite nasty, and then wrote his name in a laboured way in the resultant ‘flob’. Ugh.

Also playing on the common children’s belief that the characters actually live in the TV set, Pob was supposed to be trapped in the television, and would knock on the screen, which probably freaked out many a child over the years. Pob’s Programme always took place outdoors, often in some woods, and Pob would find great amusement in playing hide-and-seek, and spying on unwitting people. He also used to get his woolly jumper caught in various places, so it would unravel and leave a trail around the place. So, to recap, Pob a) spat b) spat on the TV c) didn’t use the Queen’s English d) hammered on the TV set e) stalked innocent people and f) ruined his clothes, sometimes deliberately - things which any child would find themselves in some serious trouble for. So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case - now do you think Pob was a good role-model?

SQUARE EYES RATING: 1/10

(Thanks to www.classickidstv.co.uk for the borrowed pic)