Reminder: Rik Mayall reads George's Marvellous Medicine (1986) on BBC4

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Albeit only one episode.

In about an hour, folks.

[The Mumbler]

Bernard Cribbins, Kenneth Williams and Alan Bennett as well.  Plus an hour-long documentary.  

Hope to God the doc's better than some of the recent Time Shifts.  Last night's one - Rude Britannia - was (perhaps fittingly) insultingly bad.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Last night's one - Rude Britannia - was (perhaps fittingly) insultingly bad.

God, yes. Halfway through I was seething 'Don't fucking show clips of Gordon Ramsay...' Which they didn't, but it was still shit.

[The Mumbler]

They're a little late with the anniversary as well.  It was 30 years old on 13th December 2005.

EDIT: I meant 40 years old, obviously.  My excuse - a poor one - is that the announcer said "31 years of storytelling" (1965-96).

[neveragain]

It's starting now...

[The Mumbler]

Last night's one - Rude Britannia - was (perhaps fittingly) insultingly bad.

God, yes. Halfway through I was seething 'Don't fucking show clips of Gordon Ramsay...' Which they didn't, but it was still shit.

"Did you threaten to overrule..."zzzzod off, you boring tit.

[idunnosomename]

These have been cut into widescreen. I hate this shit.

[Darrell]

BBC4: a place to go "oh fuck off with you."

[The Mumbler]

They can't leave anything alone, can they?

Why did all Kenneth Williams' Jackanories have Winifred Atwell's Black & White Rag as the theme tune, then?  I remember being amazed to find that Pot Black had been using the same music for years.  

He is/was brilliant, though - perfect storyteller.  As will be the others.

(Re: Gordon Ramsay - only reason he wasn't in last night's doc was surely because all the clips (being non-BBC) would have been far too expensive to clear (by Time Shift's standards, anyway).  Hence Weakest Link for what seemed like hours.)

[The Mumbler]

Why have they cut all the credits out?  (Which were always accompanied by the announcer saying "it was adapted for television by"...)

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Widescreen, yes. Why?

Anyone know the tx dates of Mayall's readings by the way?

[The Mumbler]

andrew martin on The Mausoleum Club has already obliged:

Dribblesome Teapots - 20/11/78 [which was the Monday of that week]
A Dog So Small - 2/10/78 [which was the Monday of that week]
George's Marvellous Medicine - 7/1/86 [the Tuesday of that week; so it was 06-10/01/86]
The House at Pooh Corner - 24/3/96 [which was on a Sunday - by now Jackanory had been demoted from weekdays]

[idunnosomename]

The BBC clearly thinks
"well there is like a fifth of the picture missing but at least it fits my TV god bless widescreen it is the future for everything"

is better than

"oh god the picture is stretched/there are black lines at the side of my wonderful modern TV I'm turning this off because it has confused me so much!!!"


I'm surprised really because when BBC4 showed On the Buses and Sykes on that rather desperate Routemaster night they left them alone. It's ridiculous because I have my sky box set on this TV as letterbox so I can see as much of the picture as possible

edit: hey I dont want to watch talking heads I want Alan Bennett and Rik Mayall!!

[Neil]

Have I missed Rik Mayall and/or Bernard Cribbins?

[Neil]

Fucking hell, are they going to show the Dudley Moore one?  Does it still exist?

[The Mumbler]

Fucking hell, are they going to show the Dudley Moore one?  Does it still exist?

Clearly, it's been wiped.  Well, that's the assumption I've made from when they show a still of anything.

They're not showing a Cribbins one, which is madness (although there are only four slots).  You've missed Kenneth and Judi Dench.  At 10.30 it's Mayall and 10.45 Alan Bennett.

[Neil]

Ta. Argh, would have loved to have seen the Kenneth Williams one.  Oh well.

[The Mumbler]

Ta. Argh, would have loved to have seen the Kenneth Williams one.  Oh well.

Maus Club have mentioned it's all repeated on Saturday.  Can't confirm that as of yet.

The Quentin Blake clips from '77 are making me misty-eyed with nostalgia.  There were few things I loved as a kid more than Blake's drawings.

[The Mumbler]

In fact, it's all repeated on Sunday evening - even the archive shows, which makes a change.  7-9pm on BBC4.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

George's Marvellous Medicine - 7/1/86 [the Tuesday of that week; so it was 06-10/01/86]

It was repeated in early '88 too - I remember Mayall guesting in the Broom Cupboard around the time he and Andy Crane were both destined for the Comic Relief gunge tank. 'I'd just like to say to all the children watching, don't poison your granny! Poison your teachers instead.'

[The Mumbler]

That'll be why Open Air were broadcasting complaints then - complaints about a two-year old repeat.  (Open Air didn't start till October 86)

Still jaw-dropping stuff even today, though.  Bloody funny too (I think "tailache" was the bit where I thumped the nearest cushion)

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Still jaw-dropping stuff even today, though.  

It wouldn't get made today, would it? Not without disclaimers running along the bottom of the screen or something.

[The Mumbler]

Still jaw-dropping stuff even today, though.  

It wouldn't get made today, would it? Not without disclaimers running along the bottom of the screen or something.

Actually, Mrs. Mumbler and I pretty much just concluded that the mid-80s was about the only time you could have possibly got that on at 4.30 in the afternoon.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Are they really bringing it back in the autumn then? In what format?

[The Mumbler]

We were wondering that too.  I wonder if it's been decided in the light of ITV launching a children's channel next month.  Y'know, "to uphold Reithian values" or whatever.

I suspect if they do use a storyteller, they'll use animation rather than still illustrations.   Although it was always the simplicity that appealed to me.

What George's Marvellous Medicine really brought home to me, though, was Tony Robinson's influence, not so much even in his Theseus stories (never knew Richard Curtis had a hand in that), but Tales From Fat Tulip's Garden (Central, spring 1985), which was a real "Fuck me!" moment in kids telly.  Hugely influential on storytelling on children's TV.

[Jemble Fred]

I cheered very loud when Bernie confirmed it was returning. I've been banging on about the insanity of its absence for yonks.

It's a bit unsettling that there were so many howlers in this (interesting to know that Roald Dahl's Matilda was a bout a Big Friendly Giant, for instance), but the raw material made it all worthwhile.

So I have an ambition reinstated. Albeit one that will probably never be achieved. I wanna do Jackanory.

EDIT: What does it say about me that NEVER before had it occured to me that kids might be tempted to act like George. It's always puzzled me as to why such a fabulously cinematic book (well, the second half especially) has never been turned into a movie. Now I know.

[TJ]

Why did all Kenneth Williams' Jackanories have Winifred Atwell's Black & White Rag as the theme tune, then?  I remember being amazed to find that Pot Black had been using the same music for years.

It (presumably a re-recording or alternate take of the track) had found its way onto a Library Music compilation disc that was then in widespread use at the BBC; no idea of the title sadly, and I suspect it may have been specially pressed up for the BBC.

[Catalogue Trousers]

The Mumbler wrote:

Why did all Kenneth Williams' Jackanories have Winifred Atwell's Black & White Rag as the theme tune, then? I remember being amazed to find that Pot Black had been using the same music for years.

Apart from his readings of Nils Olof-Franzen's marvellous Agaton Sax stories, of course. Although I forget if those ones had any theme tune other than the standard one.

[TJ]

Fucking hell, are they going to show the Dudley Moore one?  Does it still exist?

Clearly, it's been wiped.  Well, that's the assumption I've made from when they show a still of anything.

The Mausoleum Club published the first volume of a history of Jackanory (covering the sixties) a while back, which I contributed some stuff to, and it was revealed that literally only a handful of shows still survive from that decade. Can't remember what Dud's story was - I'll look it up for you later - but that's definitely gone. My heart sank when I realised it was missing.

Incidentally, I don't want to say too much about this now as it'll form part of a later chapter of my history of Watch With Mother for Off The Telly (http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/childrens/watchwithmother/index.htm), but it seems that some editions of both Jackanory and Jackanory Playhouse, along with a load of other children's programmes, were wiped as recently as 1993...

[TJ]

The Mumbler wrote:

Why did all Kenneth Williams' Jackanories have Winifred Atwell's Black & White Rag as the theme tune, then? I remember being amazed to find that Pot Black had been using the same music for years.

Apart from his readings of Nils Olof-Franzen's marvellous Agaton Sax stories, of course. Although I forget if those ones had any theme tune other than the standard one.

Some theme tunes that I remember:

The standard Jackanory theme; that ponderous oboe piece which legend has it was later replaced by the softer electric piano arrangement after enduring complaints that children were frightened by it.

The Phantom Tollbooth (circa 1980) used The Beatles' 'Magical Mystery Tour'
'The Indian In The Cupboard' (late 1970s?) used The Shadows' 'Apache'
'Starstormers' (1981, had Tomorrow People-esque live action segments) used an unidentified Radiophonic Workshop piece
'The Iron Man' (1984-ish) used the scary descending guitar note from the start of Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' with a load of equally scary wind effects added

Incidentally, I saw the original Jackanory kaleidoscope in a BBC Children's Television exhibition in the early 1980s, where it had been surreally enlivened by the accidental addition of a discarded Ju'Soda wrapper...