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Does anyone remember Rod Hull? Looking for a little nostalgia, I found a clip on Youtube and I was surprised at just how camp this show really was. I don't remember it being like this. Take a look and tell me what you think...
Is it just my changed attitude as an adult or is the show kind of, er, camp?

Link: Good old fashioned fun

OOPS

Link: Try this link instead

Bugger. Scrub the last two links. Type 'grotbags' on Youtube and pick the first one, the pink windmill show.

Never watched it.

That pink windmill was so gay.As was Robot Redford. And Grotbags was a fag hag if ever I've seen one.

Excuse me, there's someone at the door, there's someone at the door...

Dear God but I hated that programme.  It totally reduced Emu from a serious real-world anarchic threat to a comedy bit player in his own show.  Gack.  Mmmm mmm-mmm-mmm mm mm mmmm,  mmmm mmm-mmm-mmm mm mm mmmm...

I sold Grotbags a doughnut once.
She was in full costume at some event i was working at during my school holidays.
She seemed very nice.
I seem to remember selling some to Bob Holness on the same day

Rod Hull simply WAS showbusiness: He made a whole career out of something that would be a 5-minute act in someone else's hand(s). He made a fortune and lost it all (though was apparantly fairly content toward the end in his wind-swept shack). It was ironically his skill that left him unrecognised: People simply saw Emu as 'the funny one' in the act.

...and now it's back:

Link: One beak away from sexual harassment

Rod Hull was a genius he even died comically

I hated all those stage school kids.
Actually there was an even camper show than that called 'You should be so lucky' starring Bennet from Take Heart.

I used to know a woman who had the cruel - but accurate - nickname Grotbags.

- Trout

Watched Starsky and Hutch recently. One of them actually invites the other over to his house for a candlelit dinner, and gazes at him lovingly for being such a great partner.

Watched Starsky and Hutch recently. One of them actually invites the other over to his house for a candlelit dinner, and gazes at him lovingly for being such a great partner.

THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR, THERE'S SOMEBODY AT THE DOOR!!

Would anyone like to hear that ace Starsky and Hutch story again?

Take Hart

Several of my colleges at work believe this programme was sent by the Devil himself.

Link: Orm and Cheep

On the subject of kids TV, my little 'un (16 months on Wednesday!) is utterly captivated by the festival of the bizarre that is 'In the Night Garden'.  

Now, he's always loved dancing to the theme tunes and credits of plenty of shows (Spongebob in particular, and who can blame him) and will quietly watch wildlife documentaries for say 5 minutes at a time, but Night Garden seems to have an almost hypnotic effect on him - he demands to sit on one of our knees, then is glued to the screen for at least 20 of its 30 minutes running time, pausing only to wave furiously at Iggle Piggle and Maka Paka.  

Nothing else, not Teletubbies, not Lazytown, not Ballymory has had anything like this effect on him (not meaning to suggest that we plonk him in front of the box all day, but we have tried to find things to watch with him).  

So what is it that holds his attention from the first moment?  There are some striking images to be sure, the shot of Iggle Piggle's boat on the open sea, and the stars above transforming in blossoming flowers is quite magical, but I find much of it dull if well-designed fare.  There's no real sense of narrative, and there are painful pauses, and even the summary at the end fails to connect the hoards of differently-scaled characters to any kind of story.  "Overcome some adversity!", I feel like shouting at the screen, "Interact with each other!".  That said, I admire the diverse effects and looks used, the contrast between the Trumpton-esque world of the Pontypines versus the Teletubbie-lite world of the Tomblipoos, and Iggle Piggle is a shockingly cute everyman.  

Trouty, your Rose is about the same age as my Jack, what does she make of it all yer majesty?

What's it all about and why does it work?

Rainbow, shurely?

Rentaghost rocked

What's it all about and why does it work?

my kids (9months, 4yrs and even 7yrs) are the exactly the same.

it's tv-drugs basically - the whole Night Garden thing is so off-the-wall and incomprehensible that kids mentally tune-in to get their fix

thinky

Rentaghost rocked

that's what i thought until pvs kindly sent me the dvd of the 1st series

shockingly bad!

thinky

it's tv-drugs basically

Oddly, that's more-or-less what I was thinking.  While I know it's all the rage to insinuate that kids' TV shows are drugsfests, watching the stars-into-flowers scene actually feels (to me) like a deep drag on a really good spliff (not that I do such naughty things any more).      

I've read the various BBC 'parents info' webpages, and I'm not convinced by the babble thereon, which mainly focuses on the merits of gentle repetition and confirmed expectations. I'm genuinely fascinated as to what it is that caught my lad's attention so instantly and completely, which obviously can't have been repetition or expectation the first time.  It's not like we forced him to watch it three times and then he was hooked - he literally glommed onto it immediately, before we even knew what it was.

Watched The secret of Nimh yesterday, (only £3 from woolies,) - still brilliant, having originally seen it at the cinema as a kid

I only ever saw the advert in 2000ad as a kid sniff

  Rod Hull went bankrupt attempting to restore a 17th century house in rochester in Kent.The house was lived in by Charles dickens or featured or inspired one or two of the novels.I never watched that show but i remember watching EBC1 [emus broadcasting company].What was good about rod hull and Emu was never knowing quite when Emu was going to strike next.


 There was a teacher at school who looked like one of rentaghost actors so i used to call him claypole.

 Never watched much kids tv as i found a lot of it boring but my all time "high" of druggy kids TV was Rhubarb and Custard and always will be.


Never ever watched that Pink Windmill show .I hadnt heard of Grotbags before either.The camp character that looked a bit like C3PO was quite amusing.Very very camp.

 There was a bit in the clip where grotbags was shouting at camp C3PO and saying "I am going to wrap this round your earhole" or something like that.I had to listen to that bit twice as i misheard it the first time it was said.With the very camp character i thought she said something you wouldnt expect to hear on kids tv.

here is a photoshop of my mother in law.

years ago i had a mate (we'llcall him richard)
he was thirty his partner was a dead ringer for grotbags (though obviously not green!)

she was 64!!!

all together now "EEEUUGGGHHHHHH!!!"

"What was good about rod hull and Emu was never knowing quite when Emu was going to strike next."

 I like girls in tight jeans. Thanx.