Old School: rediscovering classic children’s entertainment

We’re living in the past and we are very happy about it. I remember being at playgroup and the teacher had called my Mum to collect me early as I had a headache.  However, I was well enough to stick around and hear the end of Jill Murphy’s ‘Peace at last’ and finish my little bottle of milk.  (Yes I am 37 and those were the days).

I loved that book.  It was so funny and the illustrations so beautiful.  Imagine my joy when we rediscovered the books and found that our children loved them just as much.  They are so well written – representing family life so perfectly with dialogue that is natural and believable. We can all relate to the characters and stories.  I can; especially when Mrs Large gets on the scales and it shocks her into exercise but then she is busted stealing cake in the middle of the night.  Jill Murphy understands.

Now we are getting into ‘Meg and Mog’.  I don’t even know how we stumbled across these again but here we are with the DVD’s and three of the books (borrowed from school) and we are loving our adventures with the witch, her cat and the owl!  They are so colourful and entertaining.

I had a chat to some Mums in the playground the other day and we were discussing the fact that our children ask to YOUTUBE some very retro programmes.  For us at the moment it is ‘Come Outside’ with Auntie Mabel AKA Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.  She is brilliant, the programme is informative and Pippin is popular in our house.  My friend’s children are loving a bit of ‘Sooty’ – Matthew Corbett’s era!  We really made the most of CITV’s retro weekend with old favourites like ‘Woof’.  The kids loved it and I noticed how everything moved slowly in the 1980’s.  Is that what the children are drawn to? 

We are all led to believe that programmes with short scenes, lots of colour and action are the most engaging for kids but that is not my experience.  Actually, I will go as far as to say that behaviour is affected after watching certain programmes. I won’t name and shame them but there is one in particular which is punk TV for children and it is very amusing but the kids get wound up by it.  As soon as it finishes, they are chucking cushions off the sofa and bundling.

So, for now, we will be enjoying the finest books and televisual entertainment that the 1970’s can offer!

Angela and Andrew Scullin started Lucky Bucket Productions when they realised there is a shortage of good material for young performers, now they provide schools and theatre groups across the country with original shows for performance.