Memories of Childhood

The worst thing that happened to me was apart from being picked on, getting covered in bruises from playful punches from mates I was once threatened by a few idiots who made Nazi salutes and wore home-made swastikas. The thing was that this sort of thing went on back then because sometimes National Front recruited kids outside the school gates-thankfully the police moved them off but thats the only bad thing I can remember. You had to use your wits and be able to run fast to avoid bullies. As Blackadder once remarked "I went to the school of hard knocks and getting the s**t kicked out of you!" Schooldays eh? You can't beat em!

At primary school if you didn't have to do assembly you were shunted off to a side classroom, so being Jewish me and my sister avoided having to sing prayers etc and just sat and chatted with other kids, some Indian, one Japanese etc. At the end we were summoned to attend in the hall for annoucements and it felt like being paraded as a freak show when we came in-all eyes shot glances at us as if we were aliens.

Our junior school (as they were called back then) had houses named after local ranges of hills - Clent, Malvern and Romsley. I was in Clent which was yellow. Within our class each table had its own team name and colour and everything we did was competitive and scored points for our team. The teams were Greeks, Spartans, Romans and there must have been one other but I forget its name.

Great feedback on the school stuff lads-I thought the idea of houses would be different for each school. Assemblies used to be interesting sometimes each class were asked to do something for it, maybe a short play or sketch. I remember we put on something about Henry VIIIth and Hans Holbein(me) and I had to come out of the side library door, climb some steps up to the stage and deliver my line. I did that but fell up the steps and got a huge laugh-plus we hadn't all learnt our lines so had the scripts in our hands and read from them. It was received well though. Speaking of putting on things I also remember we did a short funny play called Blackbird Pie in which I played the King and learnt my lines well but I also did a bit of ad-libbing too That got good reviews in the playground later.

As was mentioned earlier I was a big fan of all Gerry Anderson related programmes like 'Stingray', 'Thunderbirds', 'Joe 90', 'Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons'(with the sexy Angels) and later 'Terrahawks', 'Dick Spanner'(shorts on Network Seven on Channel Four-a 'yoof' programme by Janet-Street Porter) I just about remember the earliest one I watched with was 'Torchy, the Battery Boy.' My brother-in-law used to get SIG magazine and through that I joined FANDERSON back in 1985. Still as popular I've recently seen the first run of series two of the new Thunderbirds(stopped halfway through its run before Christmas on ITV) and although they look more like a boy-band, these new Tracy brothers are very good-Brains is now ethnic!

Rentaghost-mad cap supernatural comedy show but intelligently written.
Michael Staniforth-Mr Claypole-joker to court of King Arthur
Michael Derbyshire-Mr Davenport-bit of Dandy or fop
Anthony Jackson as Fred Mumford-half alive, not quite dead and has difficulty disappearing-holds nose to do and usually ends up somewhere he didn't want to be. Later he & his parents Sheila and Phil(Betty Alberge & John Dawson) were replaced by nosey neighbour Rose Perkins(Hal Dyer) and her long-suffering husband Arthur played by Jeffrey Segal, not forgetting the Meakers, Harold(Edward Brayshaw who appeared as a bit of a thug in Randall & Hopkirk Deceased) and Ethel(Ann Emery-sister of Dick the comic actor). Later celebrated author Lynda La Plante(Tamara Novek), late Scottish Molly Weir(McWitch) & Sue Nicholls(Nadia Popov) whose allergy caused her to disappear when she sneezed) all played various witches and it also had a Pantomime Horse! Christopher Biggins as Adam Painting, Kenneth Connor as Whatshisname Smith and Ami Macdonald-Susie Starlight.
Sources: (Wikipedia, IMDB)

I think it was mentioned some time back about Sunday afternoon programmes but I used to be confused by Catweazle(played brilliantly by Geoffrey Bayldon-who played the toy shop owner in Scrooge(1970)). I know he was a medieval magician that did some kind of magic and landed up in modern day England. I think when it first started I thought it was a cartoon as it had an animated opening sequence, but there was very little actual magic seen and it was basically him trying to get to grips with modern stuff like 'electrickery' and being hidden by Carrot(Robin Davies) - same sort of premise used in Worzel Gummidge. One thing I did see over a period of two years on the now defunct ITV Encore channel was Robin Hood-the original series starring Michael Praed and Ray Winstone, then second series Jason Connery took over. I remember watching that as a teen. Michael Praed left and ended up playing a Prince in Dynasty. Some scenes in Robin Hood would have been quite harrowing for kids to see at tea time. Really atmospheric music from Clannad (who had a big hit with the theme from the IRA drama Harry's Game)

On the BBC I remember being captivated by other teatime treats like 'The Box of Delights' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader(which were filmed much later) Like The Box of Delights it used a lot of special effects and you could see that money was spent on studio sets and the outdoor locations really added to the realism.

Does anyone remember these programmes on BBC1, around late 70's, early 80's?
The Switch
The Feather and Father Gang
Gemini Man
Holmes & Yoyo
These were very popular back then.

As I remember:
The Switch was with Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner as two con artists.
The Feather and Father Gang was a father and daughter 'gang' of jewel thieves.
Gemini Man starred Ben Murphy who was a diver who had some sort of accident and was brought back from death via a digital watch but he developed the art of invisibility and can only stay invisible for 24hrs otherwise he would disappear completely.
Holmes and Yoyo(Yojovitz) were police officers BUT one was a robot(John Schuck) and it was a comedy series.

was a big fan of Captain Scarlet and always got a little spooked by the Mysterons voiceover in the intro and for a few years I actually thought they existed....
Anyone care to name the Angels?

Oh music to my proverbial ears. Rhapsody, Harmony, Symphony, Destiny and Melody.

^^^I remember the one with the guy with the watch, but for the life of me I wouldn't have been able to tell you what it was called.

In terms of Invisible Men, I remember the David McCallum (he of Man From Uncle) series more clearly.
And a little later, BBC did a more "straight classic" version of original HG Wells novel.