The Sooty Show

THE SOOTY SHOW
Made by: BBC/Granada TV
Shown on: BBC/ITV
Years shown: 1954 - 2001 (?)

Few television shows - aimed at children or otherwise - can boast the staying-power of Britain’s favourite yellow glove puppet, and his assistants. Back in the pioneering days of television, a balding Harry Corbett stood behind a counter in his smart suit, with Sooty on one hand and Sweep on the other, chatting to them and the children at home, and doing basic magic tricks with Sooty. Sooty, for anyone who has somehow missed this televisual phenomenon, was a yellow bear puppet with black ears, who didn’t speak, but whispered into this puppeteer’s ear instead. Despite his silence, you always knew what he was saying, and he came across as both shrewd and cheeky. Then there was Sweep, introduced a few years later - a grey dog puppet with floppy black ears, who squeaked expressively and came across as rash, brash and a bit of a dunce . Sooty, as previously mentioned, was capable of feats of magic, and had his own wand and magic spell, namely, “Izzy, wizzy, let’s get busy!”

When Corbett died, the business was taken over by his bearded son, Matthew, who looked after Sooty right up until the mid nineties. Sooty was by now set in a house, where Corbett lived with Sooty and Sweep, and also Soo, a white panda bear who - horror of horrors! - actually spoke, which made her far more irritating than the others. Soo was a bit of a moralising know-all, who was forever warning Matthew against doing stupid things (they formed the crux of the show, didn’t she realise?) and telling Sooty and Sweep off for various pranks and misdeeds. This unusual family was occasionally visited by Connie, a middle-aged woman who seemed to love this strange household (perhaps she was Matthew’s social worker, checking up on how he was coping), and then permanently joined by a fourth puppet, Scampy. Scampy was Sooty’s little cousin, and was dressed in school uniform to show how young he was, but nobody seemed to notice that the others were actually totally naked. The Matthew Corbett years were a lot more lively, with none of the constrictions his father had, and there was a lot of scope for farce - being soaked by hoses, gunged by the contents of blenders, and splattered with custard pies were all par for the course. And the same formula never really became tired.

In later series, the gang moved and ran a junk shop, which became the primary set, although they also had a van, and would drive around the town. Occasions like this would mean that we would see Sooty and Sweep’s feet for the first time in over forty years, which was almost a cheeky wink at older siblings who might upset their younger brothers and sisters by saying, “Yeah, but they’re just puppets”.

Sooty is still alive and well in cartoon format these days, but can you remember that the original programme once boasted an unlikely early appearance by comedian Rory McGrath, in a diving suit, no less?!

SQUARE EYES RATING: 6/10

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