"Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl and her name was Emily and she had a shop, there it is. It was rather an unusual shop, because it didn't sell anything. You see, everything in that shop window was a thing that somebody had once lost and Emily had found and brought home to Bagpuss. Emily's cat Bagpuss, the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical, saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world".
Bagpuss arrived in 1974 and became immensely popular although only 13 episodes were ever made.

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Basil Brush the fox - the Terry Thomas of children's television. The raffish star, with his distinctive laugh, trademark tweeds and enduring catchphrase, was created in 1963, diligently learning his trade before hitting the big time in the 1970s in his own show. The cheeky host went on to vex a succession of "Mr"s (Mr Derek, Mr Roy and Mr Howard) with his continual interrupting, ad-libbing and appalling jokes. The show's guest list boasted the best of 1970s celebrity: Alvin Stardust, Cilla Black, John Inman and Demis Roussos to mention just a few--all treated to Basil's unique blend of charm and brusque wit in a series of excruciating sketches.

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First broadcast in 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was the most grown-up of all Gerry Anderson's SuperMarionation adventures. Unlike the colourful fantasies of Stingray and Thunderbirds, this series' concern with an implacable, vengeful enemy, conspiracies and double-agents drew its inspiration from James Bond and the Cold War spy dramas of the 1960s. The Martian Mysterons seem all the more hostile for their unseen presence, their agents infiltrating every organisation dedicated to their destruction just as it seemed the Soviets were doing at the time. The indestructible Captain Scarlet is killed then resurrected every week, and more often than not the unstoppable Mysterons emerge triumphant, and always undefeated.
The fantastic music, composed by Anderson's longtime collaborator Barry Gray, is available in its own right. Barry Gray's compositions have reached a cult status all of their own.

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Catweazle was a magician from the 11th century who is transported unknowingly forward to the 20th. His magic has seldom worked before, so his temporal switch surprises him most of all; he believes much of what he sees in his new world to be "a Norman trick". He finds company in the form of young Carrot (in series one) who helps him find his feet in the modern world: he sets up shop in an abandoned water-tower, and starts seeking how to perform the ultimate magic: learning how to fly. Along the way he encounters the wonders of the 20th century and gives them his own quaint terminology: electricity ("elec-trickery") and the humble telephone ("the telling bone").
Geoffrey Bayldon was outstanding as Catweazle. His wide-eyed innocence and astonishment at discovery no doubt mirrored that of his young viewers, while the show also had that air of secrecy that often appealled to kids (Catweazle was never formally 'discovered' by the adults in the series - his existence was shielded by the young cast members.)

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"Jump in we'll take you for a spin/And show you round the Wheelie World" . For pretty much anyone between the ages of 25 and 40, merely the opening line of the theme to this crazed slice of cartoon bedlam will be enough to jog memories and pluck heartstrings. For everyone else, a brief synopsis is probably in order. Well, self-evidently there's Chorlton, the least intimidating dragon in television history, whose unexplained arrival among the Wheelies is a constant source of vexation to Fenella, a spectacularly ineffective witch with a base camp at Spout Hall (yes, it's a big kettle) and a cadre of mushroom-like toadies and "spikers" with whom she consorts to bring havoc to Wheelie World. 70s children's TV at its most unapologetically demented.

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Devised by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, the programmes detail life on the small blue planet, somewhere out in space, that is home to these long-nosed, gentle, pink creatures with their distinctive whistling language. Life is simple when you're a Clanger; with plentiful green soup and blue-string pudding to eat, the main worry is being hit by objects from space. Fortunately, Clangers have armour to protect their little knitted bodies and live in caves within the planet enclosed by metal lids--the slamming of which gives them their name. A peaceful race, the Clangers live in harmony with the other inhabitants of their world--the Soup Dragon, the Froglets, several Glow Buzzers and the Iron chicken--as well as any other visitors who may drop by.

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Anyone who was a child in the first half of the 1980s will be rushing out to buy Danger Mouse, a readymade time machine to transport you back to those halcyon days of coming home from school to collapse cross-legged in front of the TV. In each action-packed episodes, our righteous rodent triumphs time and again over his arch-nemesis Baron Silas Greenback--the world's most evil toad--battling off everything from aliens and monsters to exploding custard and runaway washing machines. As ever, each episode opens in Danger Mouse's hidden hideaway (located under a post box "somewhere in Mayfair"), the furry Secret Agent duly receiving his instructions from spluttering boss Colonel K. Then it's into the Mousemobile and out onto London's streets, as DM and his trusty sidekick Penfold set off to find their croaky foe and save the day.

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Languishing in the vaults for decades, during which time it became a semi-legendary show among TV fans of a certain age, Fireball XL5 (1962) was Gerry Anderson's second puppet-animation science fiction series, the direct forerunner of Stingray (1963) and Thunderbirds (1964). This is the show on which Anderson established the formula for his later classics: a pseudo-military organisation engaged in desperate Earth-saving adventures against overwhelming odds; superb model work; puppets with very obvious strings but endearing personalities; iconic music by Barry Gray; and absolutely massive explosions.
Colonel Steve Zodiac pilots the coolest spaceship then seen on British TV, the titular Fireball XL5, and is joined by medical officer Venus, a forerunner of Lady Penelope voiced by Sylvia Anderson, and comedy relief Prof Matt Matic (David Graham).

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Joe 90 was Gerry Anderson's penultimate puppet show of the 1960s, following Captain Scarlet (1968) and preceding the little-known The Secret Service (1969). In 2112 professor Ian McClaine has invented the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope, Record and Transfer), a machine for copying knowledge and experiences from person to person. WIN (World Intelligence Organisation) uses this to prime their top undercover agent before sending him into the field on missions which range from foiling international terrorists to recovering a nuclear weapon from beneath the polar ice. So far so good, but in perhaps the most mind-boggling concept ever to reach children's TV, that agent is McClaine's nine-year-old adopted son, Joe.

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First broadcast in 1989, The Simpsons is possibly the greatest sitcom ever made. Although the animation was initially primitive, never before had cartoon characters been so well drawn. Throughout its life there's always been confusion as to whether The Simpsons is a show for kids or adults, but this is a programme for all ages and all IQs from 0 to 200. Dysfunctional they may have been, but the Simpsons stuck together, and audiences stuck with them into the 21st century.

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Drums pound, the music bursts into life with a cry of "Stingray!... Stingray!" Who can resist? Stingray was the show Gerry Anderson made just before he really hit the big time with Thunderbirds. He produced 39 episodes of the 21st century adventures of Troy Tempest, tall, dark and handsome (his voice based on James Garner's) captain of the titular submarine. Troy's mission: to protect the seas on behalf of WASP (World Aquanaut Security Patrol). With complex underwater model and puppet effects, this was ground-breaking television, especially as it was the first UK series to be made in colour, even though for years it was only seen in black and white. Special effects director Derek Meddings later graduated to the James Bond films, while Moneypenny herself (actress Lois Maxwell) voiced Atlanta Shore. Here, just as in the Bond films, she played second fiddle in our hero's affections, the mute Marina becoming Stingray's sex-goddess. The end credits even featured a song in her honour, "Aqua Maria", which became an international hit. As for the bad guys, half-man, half-fish Titan and his Terror Fish wage a dastardly war against humanity and the peaceful underwater citizens of Pacifica. Four decades on, the models and underwater sequences still impress and Stingray remains eccentric cult family entertainment.

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In the year 2020 Earth is attacked by the hideous Martian android Zelda, her son Youngstar and her sister Cy-Star. The only thing that stands between them and total domination of the Earth are the fearless Terrahawks, led by Dr Tiger Ninestein, in their fleet of hi-tech ships.

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"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale.
As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades.

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Thunderbirds soundtrack

Thunderbirds soundtrack 2

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