HAPPY FAMILIES (BBC1 1985)

Who remembers this? One of at least three completely different programmes with the same title. This one was a six-part black comedy serial, written by Ben Elton, and starring Jennifer Saunders as the four Fuddle sisters and their grandmother Edith. Their hopeless and naive brother Guy, played by Adrian Edmondson, was set the task by his dying grandmother to find and reunite his missing sisters, who had become a soap star in America, a jailbird, a nun and a French belle.

This was a very unusual comedy series, with a decidedly dark undertone; it is difficult to imagine it being scheduled pre-watershed on primetime BBC1 today. Shot entirely on film without a laughter track. I mostly remember it for its theme tune; and also the incidental music which used Elton John's instrumental Song for Guy.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Wouldn't have thought so

HENRY'S CAT (BBC1 1983-late 90s)

Who was Henry anyway?

Creator Stan Hayward joined forces with animator Bob Godfrey for this cartoon, which was very much the successor to Roobarb (see also), using the same basic animation techniques. On the face of it a very simplistic cartoon, recent repeated viewings have shown it to possess a surprisingly dry and witty sense of humour. In fact Godfrey also produced more adult-orientated cartoons for Channel 4.

Henry's Cat is the feline star whose main two interests were eating and sleeping. His best friend was the hyperactive Chris Rabbit; other regulars included Denise Duck, Pansy Pig, Douglas Dog etc etc.

The popularity of the show allowed it to progress from 5 minute to 15 minute programmes with more involved, and ludicrous, storylines and the introduction of a baddie - Rum Baa Baa. It also managed to get through three different theme tunes, the third being an appalling vocal version. Sing along at home:

Henry's, Henry's, you must know Henry's Cat.
You must have seen the movie
You must have read the book
He's a mellow yellow feline
So take a second look
He knows everything about nothing
And not so much about that
So if you know someone who knows what he knows
Then you must know Henry's Cat
You must know Henry's Cat

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? No longer on CBBC, but satellite and digital viewers will often be able to see it on Nickelodeon

JAMIE AND THE MAGIC TORCH (ITV 1976-early 1980s)

One of the few decent childrens shows ITV could muster, this is second in nostalgia value only to Gideon.

The plot revolved around Jamie who, once he had been put to bed by his mother, would shine his magic torch under his bed, and he and his dog Wordsworth would jump down the hole and slide down a seemingly endless helter skelter. Upon reaching the bottom he would come out of a hole in a tree and bounce onto a trampoline, finding himself in a bizarre world - Cuckooland - populated by the likes of a one-wheeled policeman, and mad scientist Mr Boo (below middle). Brian Trueman (see also Screen Test) wrote and voiced the programme.

Highly nostalgic opening and closing titles, with a particularly haunting theme tune in the night time 'real world' segments.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Almost as unlikely as seeing Gideon again

JIGSAW (BBC1 1979-84)

Grew out of Vision On; Tony Hart took his art to Take Hart, and the wacky stuff was reborn on yet another Clive Doig show (see Beat the Teacher, Eureka!). Jigsaw was a blend of zany sketches, animation and puzzles. The aim was come up with a full six-letter word - the jigword - taking a clue from each sketch.

There was a large roster of regular characters - Jigg himself, a floating talking puzzle piece; Biggum, the Scottish giant (of whom we only saw the tartan sock and sandal) and Pterry the pterodactyl (both voiced by Tommy Boyd); the O-Men (right, one of whom was Sylvester McCoy) and Mr Noseybonk.

Then there was a trip to the garden shed to see what crazy inventor Wilf Lunn was up to that week.

Mime artist Adrian Hedley (who did speak!) was the main man throughout. His original co-presenter was Janet Ellis, whose job was to bring sanity to this bizarre world. When she left for Blue Peter, Julia Binsted (see also Eureka!) took her place, playing the character Dot. And a pre-Tomorrow's World Howard Stableford joined for the final series, taking over as the voice of Jigg and Biggum, and also as Gregory Growlong the gardener! The theme tune here is from that final series.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? I'm afraid not

JOHN CRAVEN'S NEWSROUND (BBC1 1972-89)

News for children? It'll never work, they said. And perhaps without John Craven, maybe it wouldn't have done. The news may have been made more simplistic for its audience, but it was never patronising.

The Newsround format remained unchanged for most of John's tenure - the start of each edition was heralded by the strange plinkety plonkety theme tune, over which was read the main headline (usually something about panda bears); each story was illustrated by a full screen image behind John; then, as if to remind viewers that not everything in the world was bad, each programme ended with an amusing 'And Finally' story, a terrible pun, and the even stranger closing music.

Until 1986 the programme only ran for four days a week, although the Friday slot was often
filled by Newsround Extra . Then the following year JCN received its first proper revamp -
a new theme tune , set, computer graphics and new presenters Roger Finn and Helen Rollason - although only when John was presenting did the programme bear the presenter's name. John finally called it a day in June 1989.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? Visit our BBC News section to see how Newsround appears for the
kids of today

LONDON TO BRIGHTON IN THREE-AND-A-HALF MINUTES (BBC1 1983)

This was a short film made in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the electrification of the London to Brighton line, which was first transmitted one Friday evening, 15th July 1983, just after Nationwide. A modern recreation of London to Brighton in Four Minutes, which dated back to 1952, it was basically a filmed train journey between yes, you've guessed it, London to Brighton, speeded up so it took just three-and-a-half minutes (all right, you're ahead of me here). If only train travel was really that effective...

The soundtrack was a superb synth-pop composition, very reminiscent of the period, accompanied by various train sound effects. It was shown again in subsequent years whenever there was a five minute gap which needed filling, and I have a feeling a London to Birmingham version (taking five minutes?) was made a few years later as well.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? More than 20 years on, and I'm still waiting for London to Brighton in One Minute Forty-Five Seconds...

LOOK AND READ (BBC1/2/CBBC 1967-date)

Look and Read is one of the longest running schools programmes in Britain, and it is probable that most people aged under 35 will have seen at least one L&R story during their time in the classroom.

If you're a child of the 80s, the Look and Read stories you're most likely to have watched include Sky Hunter (shown from 1978-82), Fair Ground! (1983-89), Badger Girl (1984-92), and Geordie Racer (1988-95), As far as I'm concerned, it was The Boy from Space (1980-86) and, most memorably, Dark Towers (1981-87) - a ghost story which featured The Dark Knight, the Friendly Ghost, and Christopher Biggins. The theme tune was sung by Derek Griffiths.

Having watched Dark Towers for the first time in 20 years, thanks to a shock CBBC re-run, I was struck at how slowly the story seems to progress throughout the ten episodes; indeed the majority of each programme is given over to the straight teaching of language skills from the librarian and long-time L&R stalwart Wordy (above right) - and of course the songs. For me, the best remembered song is Bill the Brickie's 'Why Don't You Build Yourself a Word' (above middle) - watch a clip.

Nostalgia rating:

Will we see it again? New episodes are still being produced today which can be seen regularly on BBC2 and the CBBC channel; meanwhile the latter has, as mentioned, recently been digging into the archives to bring us classic L&R stories from the 70s and 80s!

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