Last night was much fun. My favourite London-based pop band and ace art historians Saint Etienne presented the fifth Turntable Cafe event at London’s South Bank Centre. As part of their year-long stint as artists in residence, the monthly-themed events are held at various venues across the site. Past subjects have included the Festival of Britain, a screening of Patrick Keiller’s Dilapidated Dwelling film, a night with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and the band’s very own Christmas Party.
The subject of last night’s cultural highlight? The BBC’s highly-regarded Watch with Mother series from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The promise of screenings of Bod and Fingerbobs episodes (as well as curiosity about the 1966 series Joe) was too much for Nik and I, and so we found ourselves enjoying a pre-screening gin and tonic at the National Film Theatre. The evening’s programme consisted of two episodes of Joe, swiftly followed by one each of Bod and Fingerbobs.
These were then supplemented by chat with a panel of guests; Joe creators Joan Hickson (illustrator) and Alison Prince (writer) fielded questions on the series about the young boy, while Alan Rogers (who was one of the original Bod animators) commented on the adventures of the small animated child and his friends. Emily Firmin meanwhile, spoke of her father’s and Oliver Postgate’s creations, including of course, Bagpuss (yes, that Emily). A final episode of Joe rounded off the event.
The Fingerbobs episode was truly a highlight; I’d forgotten just how basic it was, and although it had charm, it all looks terribly simple now.
But, it really was fascinating to learn how two single mothers (Hickson and Prince) devised the Joe series; how they fitted in bringing the storyboards to life inbetween bed and bath times; how, because the episodes were recorded onto then-new videotape, they had to be recorded live, complete with orchestra and narrator. And, how pressure from womens’ viewer groups uprooted the young boy and his family from the transport cafe where they lived and worked (and where Joe played a little too often in the lorry park), to a seaside boarding house.
Watching all of the featured programmes on a large screen in the wonderful wooden-panelled Purcell room, with it’s Eames-like leather theatre seats, brought the modern production techniques – which are often taken for granted – into stark relief. Life really was so much simpler forty years ago; not only in terms of the forms of animation which brought these iconic characters to life, but also in what was permitted to be broadcast in the days before political correctness.
It’s not until you watch or listen to these programmes many years later after their original broadcasts, that these two issues contrast how different the modern world in which we now live, is.
Prince also let slip that she worked on that other children’s TV perennial, Trumpton (though sadly not the earlier Camberwick Green or later Chigley), and that it was she who came up with the infamous fireman rollcall of ‘Pugh! Pugh! Barney McGrew! Cuthbert! Dibble! and Grub!’ Genius.
So, an evening of culture then, which was rounded off by a delightful moonlit walk along the South Bank, taking in the city views, listening to the soft lapping of the Thames’ waves, and the peaceful calm of the traffic some distance away. Stopping for a first-time bite to eat at Nando’s, we rushed for the last train home. Even with arriving back just after 1am, it really was a very enjoyable evening.