Paddington

PADDINGTON
Made by: Filmfair
Shown on: BBC
Years Shown: mid 70s-early 90s

Adapted from the popular books by Michael Bond, Paddington utilised an animation technique never seen before or since; the main character, the bear himself, was a stop-motion model, while all of the other characters, as well as all the background scenery, were hand-drawn animation. Amazingly, it worked.

Paddington was a bear from Darkest Peru, who was named after the station on whose platform he was found by the Brown family. He was wearing his trademark blue duffel-coat and red hat, with a note attached to him that read, ‘Please look after this bear.’ Mr Henry Brown, his wife, and their children, Jonathan and Judy, took Paddington home and essentially adopted him. They were not in the least surprised to find a talking bear who wore human clothes. Anyway, Paddington’s Aunt Lucy was now in a home for retired bears back in Darkest Peru, and he needed somewhere to live (how he ended up thousands of miles away is never explained - was this a deliberate ploy by his aunt?)

The Browns lived at 32 Windsor Gardens, along with their housekeeper, Mrs Bird ; next door was their nasty neighbour, Mr Curry, who had no time for the Grizzly house-guest; and there was also Mr Gruber, the local antiques dealer, who was a little more tolerant, and would take Paddington and the Brown children on trips to the seaside etc.

Paddington was famous for a couple of things: his love of marmalade sandwiches, and his ability to give people hard stares. He was not, however, famed for his intellect - in fact, he wasn’t quite the full shilling much of the time (he kept his sarnies in his hat, for instance), which led to all kinds of mishaps and misunderstanding. But Paddington always meant well, and usually he got things right by happy accident. He was also lucky that the Browns didn’t find him at Wapping or Embankment.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 7/10

Number 73

NUMBER 73
Made by: TVS
Shown on: ITV
Years shown: 1982-88

In an effort to show the usual Saturday morning cartoons, guest bands, competitions and educational bits in a slightly different format, ITV came up with Number 73, which mixed all the old guff with a kind of soap opera. Ethel (Sandi Toksvig) was the landlady, living in Maidstone, ME15 6RS (or “me fifteen, six arse”, which is obviously riotously entertaining), and presideed over her ‘family’ of young boarders. There was Harry Stern (Nick Staverson), a mulleted fashion-victim, who thought he was pretty cool, but was actually very dense; equally carefully-coiffed was Neil (Neil Buchanan), a struggling artist, who was clearly never going to make it. For a while, Neil was going out with Kim (Kim Goody), who was friends with roller-skating cockney, Dawn (Andrea Arnold.) Dawn was a vegetarian and all-round animal lover, who worked as an assistant to a vet, and frankly was the only one who wasn’t going to end up dossing around for the rest of her life. The neighbours of the folks at Number 73 were Martin Edwards, who was always starting up some kind of feud, and his more sympathetic wife, Hazel.

Number 73 was a bit like watching a drama class rehearse; the script was developed through a combination of intense rehearsals and a fair bit of improvisation. But, in its own way, it was groundbreaking, because it was live drama, with no room for mistakes during the broadcast. It proved popular, but the makers felt it necessary to reinvent the show later on as 7T3, to remain ‘hip with the kids’, and was minus a few cast members. Neil Buchanan has made it as an artist in a sense, as he continues to wield the tubes of paint on ITV’s long-running Art Attack; but most of the rest of the young cast have disappeared into obscurity, including Kim Goody, who briefly tried to launch a pop career - and failed to chart.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 2/10

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

Noggin the Nog

NOGGIN THE NOG
Made by: Smallfilms
Shown on: ?
Years shown: 1960 (plus repeats)

“In the lands of the North, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the men of the Northlands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale…”

...Thus begun every episode of Noggin the Nog, and how many programmes set such an evocative scene for its audience? You could just as easily be in the bleak, stark surroundings of an Ibsen or Strindberg play, somewhere in the vast wastes of Scandinavia. The subject of these old Norse tales was Noggin (whose name Peter Firmin thought up on the Tube on his way to work), the youthful Viking-like king, who defended his lands from his evil uncle, Nogbad the Bad (identifiable by his malevolent moustache), who wanted to reclaim the crown. Noggin is married to the raven-haired beauty, Nooka, who was the daughter of Nan of the Nooks. Nooka was a good woman, more intelligent than her nice-but-dim-witted husband, and she could also be very feisty when Nogbad threatened her family, and in particular, Knut, her son with Noggin. There were a lot of loyal Nogs, including Olaf the Lofty, the rubbish court inventor, and Thor Nogson, Captain of the Royal Guard, with his big blond beard. The Tolkien influences became even more apparent with Graculus, a gigantic green bird, who, with his wisdom and common-sense, acted as Noggin’s counsellor - and gave him a lift when he needed it.

Noggin was animated in the same style as Ivor the Engine, with expressive line-drawings and good old-fashioned story telling. There was always something dark and ephemeral

looming over the landscape of Nogland, but it was countered by the Nogs’ touching emphasis on family values, and their sense of community. Perhaps Tony Blair models himself on the King of the Nogs…

SQUARE EYES RATING: 6/10

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