The Truth About Captain Pugwash (Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV, The - Richard Lewis)

Member Name: delawney

Product:	Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV, The - Richard Lewis
Date:	02/01/03 (3193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, Informative

Disadvantages: Not Completist, Testcard Cover - Argh!

It must say something about you when your friend buys you "The Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV" for Christmas. I'm not sure what it says about you, but I'm sure it must say something.

So this was my experience - not this Christmas just gone, but the Christmas before. And I was absolutely delighted! Perhaps now I would be able to once and for all expel the myth about Master Bates and Seaman Staines on "Captain Pugwash", maybe I'd find out what Mr Benn actually did for a living, and who the hell was Bod anyway?

In fact, this book turns out to be a real education, both for the children's TV aficionado and those with a passing interest. It's a veritable mine of information and juicy tidbits about all your favourites, as well as a few you don't remember at all. And since it covers several generations of children's telly, you are also able to catch up on all you didn't know about children's TV not of your era.

First things first - this is NOT one of those glossy publications with lots of pictures to remind you of those favourite programmes in question. It does contain some photographs, but they are all very much in black and white. (Not a problem, I guess, for the older programmes!). This is not really a criticism as it did not in any way spoil my enjoyment of the book, but I feel it is worth pointing out lest you get the wrong impression!

So, what qualifies a children's TV programme as "cult", in order that it might feature in this book? Lewis addresses this in the prologue. "Almost as soon as I began to research this book, it became clear that there were as many cult followings as there were TV shows. This made it a much bigger project than was first envisaged". I can well believe it. In the end Lewis admits that a line had to be drawn, and that line would no doubt be an arbitrary one. It starts around 1960 and ends roughly around 198
8, with shows outside that period tending to be missed out. Thus, old programmes like "Bill and Ben" and "Muffin the Mule" do not appear, though as Lewis says, these have been very well covered elsewhere. Similarly, more modern shows like "The Simpsons" (which I would argue is not really childrens TV anyway) don't get a look in. No "Teletubbies" here (thank goodness).

As this is an encyclopaedia, it should not surprise you to discover that the book is comprised of a large number of alphabetical entries. Conventionally, it starts at "A" and moves through to "Z". (Just once I wish someone would mess about with the order just to make life a little more interesting. Is that just me?). Entries consist of the TV programmes themselves, or characters/items from those programmes. For example, you could look up "The Adventure Game", or you could look up the "vortex", which featured in said programme. As you read each entry, any reference to another programme or item which has its own entry is shown in bold, so you can cross reference to that if you wish.

This is not a definitive reference guide to children's television. It does not provide original transmission dates, lists of all the episodes and their titles, or anything like taht. What Lewis claims in the prologue to set out to do is to fill in gaps in memory, and I think in general this is something he manages to achieve, always in a humourous and entertaining fashion.

Being the sad muppet I am I actually read this from cover to cover, so I guess I should now be an expert in cult children's TV. Of course, my memory not really being what it should that is not the case, and I still find this a fun little reference book to dive into every now and again. Hours of fun can be had just dipping into it to see what titbit of information is going to come out. Lewis's style is quite conversational,
which makes the book easy to dip into.

So, what about Captain Pugwash then? In fact, Captain Pugwash had a crew of three: Barnabas, Pirate Willy and Master Mate (which you have to admit does sound a bit rude) along with Tom (no, not Roger) the cabin boy. As for Mr Benn, we are none the wiser as to what he did. Richard Lewis suggests he might be a care in the community case, which would no doubt explain his bizarre behaviour. And Bod? (who, incidently, scares mr delawney). None the wiser there either I'm afraid. "We didn't know what it was, we just knew it was coming", says Lewis.

It has to be said, however, there is one major downside to this book. That is the cover. You see, as the picture above demonstrates, it features the testcard of the little girl and the clown, which absolutely terrifies me! Is it just me who is absolutely convinced that clown is evil? Oooh, I'm going to give myself nightmares just thinking about it.

Whether you are a fan of children's TV, or whether you just want to indulge in a bit of nostalgia and remind yourself of what you used to enjoy as a kid, you will find this book both amusing and informative. I'm sure reading through it sets you up well for partaking in pub quizzes and the like too! True, if you are looking for a definitive, completist reference book on Childrens telly this may not be for you, but for a downright entertaining and nostalgic read, I can wholehartedly recommend it.

Now, I'm off to Button Moon.


RRP: £9.99
0 7490 0576 9

Summary: