Fingermouse

FINGERMOUSE
Made by: BBC
Shown on: BBC1 and BBC2
Years shown: 1985 onwards

Theme tune: “I’m the mouse called Fingermouse/Fingermouse that’s me/I’m a musical paper mouse/As anyone can see/I can play the drums - look/I can play keys/I’m the mouse called Fingermouse/Fingermouse that’s me/I can play woodwind/I can play strings/I can play just about anything/I can play this/I can play that/Anything at the drop of a hat - see!/Oh, I’m the mouse called Fingermouse/Fingermouse, that’s me!”

Fingerbobs was a programme in early seventies, presented by Yoffy (actually ex-Playschool presenter, Rick Jones), and a selection of paper finger-puppets shaped into a variety of woodland animals. Jones actually killed off the mouse - the star puppet - by dunking him in a cold cup of coffee while the cameras were still rolling at the end of the series, but someone had the bright idea of resurrecting him for the children of the eighties.

The BBC probably needed to make something quickly and with a weekly budget of 17p. Anyway, Fingermouse was presented by Iain Lachlan (also of Playschool, and Pie in the Sky), who would ‘operate’ the mouse so that the creature was ‘playing’ various musical instruments, such as a trumpet or piano. When the programme makers had some spare sugar-paper, the mouse was joined by his friends, a badger, a butterfly, a fox, an owl and a rat, who all looked a little more complicated to make. In fact, the real selling point of the programme was that parents and children could send away for a ‘fact sheet’, to make their very own Fingermouse, an activity which would be mildly diverting for five minutes before you remembered the ‘Light and Sound’ Lego next door. Much like Fingermouse itself, really.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 2/10