Being Mrs C

A spot of Telly Nostalgia

Just in case it's passed you by I feel it my moral duty to inform you of an amazing event that's going on this weekend. It's 30 years since those people at ITV started doing kids programmes - Children's ITV as it was known, CITV in modern speak - and to celebrate they're turning the CITV channel (that one you watch sometimes when you overshoot CBeebies on the remote) over to some of the best shows from the last 30 years.

A quick look at the schedules (in this Radio Times article) shows some great memories from my childhood as well as plenty of others I'd forgotten. There have been several online discussions since about what greats are missing from the list and many people trying to recall what was on ITV and what on CBBC. As I sat up in the middle of the night (feeding Master C again!) I found myself creating my own list of TV greats from my childhood. What's the point of these lists though if you don't share them, so here goes!

Blue Peter

It's impossible to talk about children's TV without mentioning Blue Peter. It was the programme that you were always allowed to watch as it was deemed "educational", but then that did mean that there were always some segments that as a child you found rather boring.

For many of us our childhood is defined by which Blue Peter presenters you remembered. I think Simon Groom, Sarah Green and Peter Duncan were the ones on when I started watching, but during my time I also remember Mark Curry, Caron Keeting, Yvette Fielding and Janet Ellis. Strangely I struggled to find my clips on You Tube (maybe due to BBC copyright issues?) but this one moment that I remember seeing. As a child comprehending that someone had vandalised the Blue Peter garden was a hard one to get my head around.

Gran

Strangely I can even remember when Gran used to be on - lunchtimes on BBC2, just before Stop Go. This was very much in the same vein as Postman Pat, but as a child who had a "Gran" in their lives I completely loved this. Listening to it again the theme tune isn't as catchy as I recall, but the whole concept of having adventures with your Gran was some that I totally bought into.

Bertha

I've been reliving Bertha recently thanks to my parents buying Little Miss C a DVD of it for Christmas last year. My sister was obsessed with this as a child and once again I think it was part of the BBC2 lunchtime slot, possibly being on just before Gran.

Pigeon Street

Another BBC great with some catchy music. Who could fail to love Pigeon Street and all the people you could meet there. I can even remember singing along to Long Distance Clara in the school playground.

SuperGran

When it comes to SuperGran I think I remember the titles far better than the programme itself. I do recall that it was on ITV, possibly made by TyneTees television, and featured a typical Scottish Gran who went about daily life with plenty of adventures and super powers thrown in too.

I also think that a friend down my street used to have a Spectrum computer game version of this and that we'd sit for ages watching it load from cassette just so we could sing along to the theme tune. So different to today's children looking things up instantly on You Tube.

Rainbow

Who doesn't remember Rainbow fondly? Even though we're now told that it was full of innuendo and questions over why Rod, Jane and Freddy all lived together, but as a child it was just great fun. Up above the streets and houses, rainbow climbing high.

Button Moon

I remember my mum and I watching this (strangely never with my sister though - was she asleep at the time, or before she was born maybe?) but even then I seem to recall finding it a little strange. Strange yet I still enjoyed watching it.

Degrassi Junior High

Bought in from Canada, Degrassi Junior High was shown on the BBC and opened my eyes to what life was like at schools outside the UK. It was probably classed as being a bit cutting edge for UK children's TV back then, but I was obsessed. I can even remember my sister and I pretending to deliver newspapers whilst wandering around our back garden with a trolley full of papers my mum had put out for the bin men. Very much a teenage drama of the day, but with the added interest of it not being set in the UK.

CBBC Broom Cupboard

Holding together the afternoon's post school TV session were the men (and one woman IIRC) of the CBBC Broom Cupboard. For many women of my age though Phillip Schofield was the first and the one who took our hearts. Funny to think as I see him on the Cube that this man's picture was pulled out of the poster section of Smash Hits Magazine and plastered on girl's bedroom walls all over the country.

Without the internet or email the only way to contact your idols in those days was via snail mail and I'll never forget the excitement of once having a letter read out by him. Other presenters followed (Andy Crane, Simon Parkin and Debbie Flint are the names that spring to mind) but as far as I know they've only been seen on shopping channels of late. And Edd the Duck was no comparison to Gordon the Gopher.

I'm sure this list isn't exhaustive, but what else have I forgotten? Maybe Grange Hill should be in there. And we all watched Newsround - even if we did find it a bit dull and grown up at the time - just to laugh at John Craven's jumpers. Hours and hours can be lost though looking up old TV shows, and we didn't even have dedicated children's channels!

The career woman to mum transition

I have a secret to reveal. One that I'm slightly embarrased about. In the last couple of years I've become a bit of a fan of one particular daytime TV programme. I've thankfully managed to avoid the Jeremy Kyle style shows, but instead have a bit of a weak spot for soaps and in particular the BBC's Doctors.

A bit of background if you're not familiar with it - Doctors is a lunchtime daily drama all about the goings on in two partner Doctors surgeries set in the fictional town of Letherbridge in the Midlands. There are several doctors working there, along with a couple of receptionists, a nurse, local police man (who happens to be married to one of the receptionists) and a few other family members. Each programme usually has a central storyline based (losely sometimes) around a medical issue. As you'd expect in a soap one of the doctors is married to the practice nurse, two other doctors are in a long term relationship and of course nothing in their lives is straight forward.

Now, you wouldn't normally find me writing about a soap, but the reason I want to draw attention to it is one ongoing storyline that they're currently running. In Doctors two of the doctors (Zara and Daniel) have just had a baby together. In the usual non-straightforward manner this baby was their last chance at IVF and baby Joe was also born 4 weeks premature in the middle of the doctors surgery! Where I'm finding it interesting is how they are covering Zara's transition from a career woman to a mummy.

We saw her dissolve into tears at the simplest of things whilst pregnant - not something that many hard-nosed career women imagine themselves doing, but something that all women who have been pregnant can relate to. Before having the baby she was convinced that she would return to work as soon as possible after the birth and that their baby would go straight into childcare. A period of forced maternity leave is proving to be tough for her. The lack of adult conversation during the day time, combined with disturbed sleep and a 4-week baby that won't follow a routine yet means she's currently climbing the walls.

A visit earlier this week to a parent and child group has shown her just how pushy some parents can be with their kids. I had to laugh when they had toddlers doing spanish lessons, but then I also know that it's something that is offered in local nurseries! Zara making a statement about how all babies need is "food, warmth and love" is something that I believe many new mums could do with remembering. There really is no need to have to enrole them in numerous activities, but at the same time many new parents do need to get out of the house and socialise with other adults for their own sanity.

I'm fascinated to see how they cover the rest of Zara's transition and hope that they do continue to do so rather than the baby going into childcare and being "forgotten" about. There must be a huge number of new mums who watch Doctors whilst at home with their little ones and I'm convinced that seeing a frank and honest account of how difficult it can be for a career woman to turn herself into a mum is a valuable thing.

Call the Midwife

Sunday evenings have been prety damn good TV evenings recently. With Sherlock and Downtown (which I still haven't seen!) loads of people have been talking about what they're watching at the end of the weekend. For me though the last couple of weeks have been a particular highlight as BBC has been showing Call the Midwife, based on based on Jennifer Worth's memoirs of the same name. 

Jennifer Worth was a midwife in the east end of London in the 1950s and I understand that she worthed with the BBC production team on the TV adaptation before her death last year. I have to admit that I've not read her memoirs but I am completely gripped by the TV programme. The role of the midwife is really well portrayed and the level of detail shown really makes you understand just how difficult their job was and also how hard things were for the mothers of the east end. 

The cast are fantastic, with notable household names like Pam Ferris and Jenny Agutter as two of the Sisters, but for me a special mention has to go to Miranda Hart who plays newly qualified midwife Chummy. Whilst we're used to seeing Miranda and her very physical brand of humour in her sitcom of the same name, this programme allows her to show off the rest of her acting talent with some very moving scenes beautifully done.

If you've not discovered this wonderful programme yet then the good news is that the first two episodes are still available on the BBC iPlayer and there are also still four more episodes to look forward to.

Childhood TV memories

It may be seen as being controversial by some but we do allow Little Miss C to watch television. We try to manage what she watches quite carefully and it's certainly not on all the time, but we do find that sometimes she needs something to calm her down and 20 minutes of watching something she likes seems to do that. 

She can be running round like a loon and getting all frustrated because it's chucking it down with rain outside and I won't let her out into the garden, but just switching on Mr Tumble or similar can calm her down and when it's finished she's quite happy to move on to another activity. I think we're actually quite lucky here in the UK as if you have digital terrestrial TV there is CBeebies which provides some form of entertainment for pre-schoolers from dawn till dusk. Yes there is repetition in the day, but that's not generally a problem. We're also lucky enough to have an internet TV and I use the iPlayer app on that more than anything else to access CBeebies programmes. It means I can just play one episode of something and when it's finished it doesn't automatically run on into another programme.

After chatting to my mum the other day about children's television I started thinking about all the things that I used to watch as a child. My favourites included Postman Pat, Gran, Bertha, Trumpton, Pigeon Street and Paddington. Would today's children appreciate the same stuff? I've no idea. I've been keeping a close eye on eBay to try and pick up some of these on DVD where I can - partly for LMC's entertainment, but also partly for me and Mr C. Would there be a market for a TV channel that just shows things from our childhood? It'd certainly provide entertainment for parents in a nostalgic way whilst they watch with their children and I'm sure students would love something like that too!

What were your TV favourites from childhood? Any that you'd particularly like to see brought back?

Proud of the BBC

I've seen the #potbbc hashtag in use on twitter for a while now, but have to admit that until tonight I had no idea what it was all about. Oh boy have I been missing out.

In short, the fabulous Mitch Benn has written this wonderful song all in praise of Auntie!

I'm a softie who has been deprived of sleep these last few nights, but even without that I still felt a lump in my throat when I heard this tonight. The original video's pretty good, but this version created with pictures brings it all to life a bit more.

At times like his I'm proud to be British, and a TV Licence payer!

Escape to River Cottage

 

Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, I realised a while back that I'd never actually seen the original series of River Cottage. I also recently had a birthday - cue a very unsubtle hint to Mr C for a birthday present. 

Escape To River Cottage covers Hugh's original move to Dorset and his first attempts at self-suficiency. It's amusing looking back and seeing him tackle things in a slightly naive manner when he would do exactly the same things today very confidently. In a way I found that there was actually a lack of information about some of the things that he was doing. When this series first went out people weren't necessarily interested in becoming self sufficient themselves in the way that people are now, hence the series wasn't aiming to show people how to do it themselves in the way that current series do.

It is good being able to see how it all started though and to realise how far Hugh and his River Cottage lifestyle has moved on since. After plenty of time where I've been preoccupied with other things it was also quite motivational to get outside and do my own bit of self sufficiency in the back garden. I've also been prompted to buy the following two series Return To River Cottage and River Cottage Forever and I'm looking forward to catching up further with developments at River Cottage.

Mastercrafts: Weaving

I've been trying to catch up with the wonderful Mastercrafts that has been on BBC 2 recently and watched the latest episode on the BBC iPlayer just last night. This week's craft was weaving - something that I've often wanted to try, but not known much about. 

It's up on iPlayer for a week or so more and I really recommend that you go and watch it if you haven't done so already (direct link here) as it was a fab programme. Great to see the craft in more detail and to understand more the mechanics behind it. Also wonderful to see what can be created, and what the three of them managed to do in just six weeks.

Definitely another thing to add to my "things I want to try" list.

Mo

My television watching is often a few days behind when things are actually broadcast, so it was only yesterday when I caught up with Channel 4's drama Mo, which told of the life of the late Mo Mowlem. The film covers not only her time in Northern Ireland, but also her own personal battle against the illness that finally took her life. 

The acting was fantastic, with Julie Walter's portrayal of Mo as incredibly accurate. The way in which the story was told was beautiful in the way that it combined tender moments of Mo's life as well as the challenges that she went through in Northern Ireland dealing with both politicians and terrorists. To see a dramatisation os something that I lived through so recently was a tad strange, but there is no doubt to me that this film puts a very human face on politics. I hope that when school children cover Northern Ireland as part of their history syllabus, as I'm sure they will do one day, this film is shown to them.

One thing it did make me realise is just how the "characters" in politics today just don't measure up to what Mo Mowlem was like. RIP Mo, you're definitely missed.

If you missed the programme it is still available on 4OD, or a dvd version is available to buy online. 

Food for thought

Although we didn't get any snow, yesterday was a very grey day. Even by nine o'clock in the morning the skies still looked very heavy and made it see much earlier than it was. A day that needed to be spend inside the house.

A fresh batch of scone (from a tried and tested Delia recipe) enjoyed with a cup of tea and catching up with the BBC Cranford series (how did I miss this when it was originally on TV?). Lovely. It also gave me time to make great progress with a second bootee, this time to match the version 2 one that I completed earlier in the week. 

The other thing I've been enjoying recently has been the Hairy Bikers' Mums Know Best series that has been showing on the BBC. A great mix of recipes (sweet and savoury from around the world) and fun to watch. The book accompanying the series has certainly made it on to my Amazon wish list!

Kirstie's Handmade Christmas

I was thrilled to see that as a follow up to Kirstie's Handmade Home there is now her Handmade Christmas too! I love Christmas and just wish I had more time to be able to do more myself, so I thought some inspiration for things that I might be able to fit in would be good.

Having had a nice trip round Liberty with my mum lately it was lovely to see Kirstie also enjoying a wander round the Christmas store. There were some lovely decorations, including some that I could never justify the price of, but it would be very difficult to go round there without starting to get into the festive spirit!

When I saw that Kirstie wanted to make her own Christmas cake I was initially thinking that she meant that she was going to bake one. Oh no. Just decorating instead. I have to say that I'm not really in to decorating of Christmas cakes, it's the eating I'm more interested in. But maybe that's me. I've nothing against cake decorating in general, but in these thrifty times thought it may be good to hear about actually making the cake instead, but then again I suppose Nigella and Delia cover that!

I'm hoping to get a wreath for our front door (now that we actually have one of our own!) and really liked seeing how Kirstie made hers. It certainly made me realise how simple it can be just as long as you have somewhere nearby where you can find the nature bits you need to make it. I'm not sure I'm going to have time this year, but I'll have to remember for 2010.

My tree decorations have always been simple shop bought ones, but I really liked the glass striped ones. I'm not sure I'll be able to afford a glass blowing lesson, but I'll certainly be looking out to buy a few more interesting ones in years to come.

Gift making on tomorrow's programme which should be good. Until then though I think I'll be working out if my tree needs more decorations or not!