Conversation:

I've just been catching up on a few things from the Sky+ box. One we recorded a couple of weeks ago was the "100 Greatest Childrens' TV programmes". There were many old favourites of mine - The Clangers, Chorlton and the Wheelies, Bagpuss...

There was the usual collection of stars and critics, giving their opinions about what they likes, and what was fun. There was also someone by the name of Jill Phythian, who is apparently a writer, but is also... well... have a read of her views on the following:

Crackerjack – Double Or Drop

As reviewed by Jill Phythian.

“It’s an allegory of the class struggle. When they got something wrong, they were all given cabbages – cabbages being a symbol of their working class backgrounds, and these cabbages would weigh them down and stop them from holding onto the things that they had acquired. True Thatcherites were able to hold on to their goods, avoid the cabbages at all costs, and win through at the end.”

The Wombles

As reviewed by Jill Phythian.

“They only used things that the everyday folk left behind; they never kind of “sold out” from that, and moved onto only using the things that the middle classes left behind.”

Bagpuss

As reviewed by Jill Phythian.

“My theory about Bagpuss is something of a socio-political allegory of modern society. Bagpuss represents the individual; when he wakes up, society becomes active around him. The mice, they represent the proletariat, they’re frozen on the Organ Of The State normally, and Professor Yaffle, he represents the intellectual.
I mentioned this theory to Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin once (the creators of Bagpuss). They seemed very surprised in fact, because they thought the whole thing was about a stuffed cat!”

Am I the only one who just wants to slap people like her, and say "It's a kids programme, nothing more, nothing less!!"

Ooh, can I have a go?

'The Clangers' clearly represents the struggle against Fascism.

The soup dragon, as dictator, represses the working classes while forcing them to survive on a diet of soup and blue string pudding. Small and Tiny Clanger form a paramilitary youth movement hell-bent on annexing neighbouring planets, regardless of the territorial claims of the Iron Chicken.

Excellent!!

Oliver Postgate has a lot to answer for!!

mmmm! keep taking the tablets

I always thought Bill and Ben were up to no good with Little Weed but I thought that was just meand then there was Andy Pandy looking happy at being put in the toy box with that pretty little blond dolly at the end of the show, looking back now he should have been called "Randy Andy Pandy"

rag,tag and bobtail had problems as well