Banning Horrid Henry & A Call To Bring Back Why Don't You

Okay, so I know I'm going to sound like Victor Meldrew with this blog post, but what has actually happened to kids' TV...?

In my day, growing up as a child in the 70's, we were presented with a variety of TV programmes that kept us entertained with their innocent, DIY philosophy - from Blue Peter's washing up bottles and sticky backed plastic, through to Magpie's scientific 'How' approach and the punk contender Why Don't You ("switch off your TV set and go out and do something less boring instead"). 

Okay, so the latter was 'presented' by groups of unruly children and could no doubt be seen as a pre-runner to inciting gang culture for children growing up in the '80s, but they all had a meaning and a purpose: to give a generation of children pre-PlayStation/Nintendo something to do and focus their creative energies upon.

I have no doubt that those more austere times (we knew the real meaning of austerity, kids) resulted in an abundance of creative, arty kids and parents, happy to cut up washing-up bottles and tinsel to glue together to form spaceships and aliens and dolls to while away the playing hours.

Fingerbob, which in modern times would surely be frowned upon (bearded mime artist entertains children by placing a varIety of animal-like cards on fingers) was like a beacon of light to us as children. We sat transfixed as the presenter (a Canadian chap called Yoffy) spent ten minutes collecting stones and various other bits of rubbish for his finger animals to deliberate and ponder over.

All innocent, creative fun and learning for us innocent children of the 70's and 80's.

Fast forward to today, and what do we have? A myriad of children's cartoon shows and programmes, plus an array of soap-style TV series, all with the intention of transfixing our children and creating a licensed buying frenzy, resulting in boom-time Christmas retail purchasing of the latest Rastamouse skateboard or Iggle Piggle doll.

Too harsh? Perhaps... But as a parent I find today's programmes worryingly absent of any creative flow for a child. Okay, so there's Mr Maker, and Justin/Mr Tumble will always do his best to entertain (he's a LEGEND!).

But, I've had to ban Horrid Henry from the house for its inane use of the English language (which my little boy delights in reciting to me) and Henry's rude behaviour. Okay, so he's probably a bit too young to be watching it, but he's at an age now where he can turn over the TV to the channel that he wants. And when he does, I have to try and change topic/tact to move his attention away from the TV and onto something else (other than the Xbox - see next blog post).

I never thought I'd be THAT parent who banned TV shows (we ALL knew some poor kid at school who wasn't allowed to watch The Young Ones), but t hanker for the creative influence that TV had on me as a child, my hope is that he'll find the same influence and creativity soon enough. Why Don't You indeed....