I could best describe myself as the 'weird' one but in a nice way, I am the one who remembers theme tunes,toys,food and drink and just general gobbledegook that no-one else cares or is even interested about but once the subject is brought up then it can spark a lot of memories from everyone, I have a particular penchant for all the old testcard,schools programmes idents and music which went with it and I am a member of the Testcard Circle which a lot of people may find strange but to me it is an enjoyable and worthwhile hobby where people from all over the country are members.
Rainbow Rainbow has just got to the best of all the children's programmes,closely followed by Play Away. I loved the Sally and Jake bits in between probably around 1973 or 1974,or a very good story usually read by Geoffrey and he was damn good at it too, how many of the Rainbow cartoony bits can people remember, the one with the guy bouncing up and down on the Diving Board and jumping into the water with a Rainbow following,or the Bird pecking away at the Rainbow until it smashed with that fake sound of breaking glass which is awful, the boat going over the water and a Rainbow each time it jumped, there were loads and loads of them.
Lizzie Dripping Only thing I can think of was that she was played by Tina Heath who also around about the same time taught me to read in a Look and Read story called Cloudburst, the first Look and Read that was in colour and included Wordy or Mr Watchword, presented by Richard Carpenter.
Little Blue No you didn't dream it, I remember it at 12.00 on I think it was a Tuesday or Wednesday, he had friends called Kipper Guppy and his bully friend was called Geoffrey Perkins, his best friend whom I can't remember was a girl called something like Martha, he lived with his Mother Mrs Jellybun.
Metal Mickey Yeah, they were called Atomic Thunderbusters, which in effect were just what you and I would call Fizz Bombs, those yellow,pink and various other coloured sweets, I seem to remember Ricky from Eastenders being in this? but I could be wrong.
Sally and Jake Yeah I can remember them too, I absolutely loved them to bits, they came about 1973 and I do remember the interstitials within Rainbow, you used to get things like the guy jumping up and down on the Diving Board before diving in with a Rainbow following him, or the Bird pecking away at the Rainbow until it smashed, then it would go into a Sally and Jake which was very well narrated by Geoffrey himself, Granny, Sly the Cat,Mr Prescott and of course Harry the stringvested man with the tattoo of an Anchor on his arm, Lovely stuff, they just don't make programmes like this any more.
Oscar The Rabbit Deinitely!!!!!, we used to get it in Scotland about mid-late afternoon, I can remember him swinging about on a tyre at the either beginning or the end of the programme, It was called something like Oscar and the great Wooferoo, I remember the tune vividly and Karen O you are right about the sort of fairground style music and yes it was very screechy in places, Gnashers was the Pterodactyl and the Dragon was called Zaggy and did involve the Washing Line of Death, I think Gnashers may have also appeared in a very similar type of programme called The Dinosaur Show and it was set to a black background but you could sometimes see the movements of the persons controlling the puppets in the background. I reckon this was out about 1977ish,same time as Jamie and The Magic Torch
Christopher Lillicrap Yeah I think everyone would have laughed at his name, even grown adults, the mere mention of his name is enough to make me laugh, best known I think for the Playboard programme with the puppets from Playboard Puppet Theatre, Mo and Hedge who used to grunt and make stupid noises, they went down to the circus to see the show, then generally make their way back before snuggling up against each other,bums up in the air before snoring broke out. Christopher Lillicrap usually told a story as he played a guitar and I can photographically see him doing it to a story about the Gingerbread Man, anyone else remember this?
