Product Description

Do you ever lie awake at night, wondering whether the Snorkmaiden was having an affair with Moomin Papa? Have you ever drunk a bit too much, and started an argument about Button Moon? Does Noesybonk from Jigsaw still haunt your nightmares? Do you find yourself drifting off during boring business meetings, trying to remember the names of all the Flumps? If so, this book is for you. The Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV will take you back to a better age. It will take you on a journey back to Chigley, to Moominvalley, to Toytown, high above the streets and houses, where it was all so honest and simple. Where it was perfectly ordinary for a camp man in dungarees, a big woolly bear, a fey pink hippo and a bitchy zipped-up gimp to get in bed with each other and sing a song...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #231416 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
'A deeply dangerous, but wholly satisfying little hardback which promises to take your mind into areas untouched since childhood' Newcastle Journal

Scotland On Sunday
'A genuine reference book, wittily written and on a nicely small scale to keep you browsing.'

What's On
'Wonderfully well-written and researched and will put a smile on anyone's face. Crackerjack!'

Customer Reviews

Seriously funny observation
I was going to give this book three stars. After all, it missed my fave show ever Ace of Wands. But after spending a weekend with the book, and therefore its author, I came to realise that humour and truthful comments was more important. The jokes come thick and fast and Lewis's observations are perceptive and well worth the money. I (sadly) read it cover to cover and laughed all the way. Thanks. A great trip down memory lane and a really funny way to spend a weekend. MW.

Reliving my wasted childhood years
I bought this book one Sunday lunchtime and didnt put it down until I had finished it; it was as gripping as a who-dunnit; except in this case it was a who-was-it? - all those questions which arise after too much alcohol with friends "what were the name of the Banana Splits?", "what exactly were the flumps?" and "were the creators of ALL our childhood heros under the influence of mind-altering substances??!!" All these and many more are answered in a humerous book with many hysterical insights from the author. Turning the page to find a long-since forgotten tv favourite from my childhood, I was shreiking with delight all afternoon; and was still giggling the next day . If you were a child in the 70s; BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

Dashed off in a bit of a hurry!
Reading this, you can almost hear the publisher phoning the author, hassling him to have it ready to hit the shelves in time for Christmas...clearly no-one even had time to proof-read it, nor did the writer even take the trouble to organise his information in a useful manner - for instance, numerous entries for various Hanna-Barbera cartoon series tell us that so-and-so's voice was provided by Daws Butler, but there is no entry on 'Daws Butler' to give us a complete listing of the voices he supplied - on the other hand, entries for individual characters appear seperately, and invariably duplicate information in the entries for the series in which they appeared - but then this is a frivolous book and it would be missing the point to complain about stuff like that- as if to emphasise that, the author thoughtfully provides an entry for the term 'pishdy-cuf', and cross-references it to the entry for 'Ivor the Engine'.
The book never gets more serious than its tongue-in-cheek analysis of social heirarchies in Chigley, but there are loads of little facts in here to make you think 'I never knew THAT!' or 'Oh yeah - I'd completely forgotten'... for instance, who was the presenter in the FIRST series of 'Rainbow-?' And why IS 'Jackanory' called that-?
My only real gripe is that, frivolous though it is, it really is a bit too slapdash... a good many names are spelt incorrectly - not typing errors - he simply gets them wrong... Hong Kong Phooey's voice was Scatman Crothers, not Crowther; Catweazle was played by Geoffrey Bayldon, not Blaydon - I could go on - it's not hard to get these things right... and if you can't find 'Hector's House' straight away, don't despair - it's listed AFTER 'Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!' - that's right - this is an encyclopedia that can't even get its alphabet right!
However I'm being really picky here. Its technical faults are more than made up for by its astute speculations on Mr Benn's offscreen life, and whether or not Moominpappa was having an affair with the Snork Maiden (I'm convinced). This is the most fun book I've read in ages - I relished each and every page. Buy the thing, then hassle the publisher for a revised edition.