Badly Drawn Bod (Bod)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	Bod
Date:	06/05/02 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: surreal nostalgia

Disadvantages: er, the animation wasn't all that

What's bald, has no communications skills and is permanently dressed in yellow? No, not Sinead O' Connor after a conversion into Bhuddism, I'm talking about Bod, the non-descript thing that graced kids TV screens throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

Bod was the eponymous character of a series of short cartoons. First aired in 1975, it is one of the most bizarre TV creations ever, and makes stablemate 'Fingerbobs' look like Jurassic Park in comparison.

Designed by the husband and wife team Joanne and Michael Cole (who had presumably mistaken their shitake mushrooms for something altogether different when they came up with the idea), Bod is now available on video and DVD so you can relive the magic of Bod and co.

Bod was the central character, a kind of cult hero for the pre-school tot. He is probably best remembered for his lack of facial expression and having legs that moved in a peculiar circular manner.

The other 'stars of the show' were Aunt Flo, Farmer Barleymow, PC Copper and Frank the Postman, who all popped up on every episode. Also worthy of a mention is Alberto Frog, a secondary character who has his own band a weakness for flavoured milkshakes. At least that's what we were told they were?

The characters were all voiced by actor John Le Mesurier, who is probably better known for from the oft repeated 'Dad's Army'. Another person to name-drop here is Richard Griffiths, the Play-School presenter who provided the music for the show.

Bod was unusual in that the plots were completely random. You never knew quite what was going to happen next. The only point of regularity was that Bod would leave his humble residence and meet with the other characters at some point during the 600 seconds or so that every episode was on screen. An H-Bomb could have been dropped on them and you wouldn't have been surprised if they started to talk about needing to cu
t the grass. The dialogue was equally bizarre and disjointed.

To say that the animations themselves were primitive is an understatement. I think that Bod may have been created during an ink shortage, as they only really seemed to use the colours puce and yellow. They were also fond of big shapes and little attention to detail. Everyone's ears were microscopic, whilst poor old Bod seemed to lack any kind of eyeballs.

A bit like that other psychedelic show of the 70's, 'Roobarb', there were drug connotations ten-a-penny. However, I'm not sure that even the most astute kid in the audience would pick up on this, bearing in mind that the majority of them would be unable to form a proper sentence let alone theorise as to hallucinogenic metaphors.

After only a handful of episodes, they decided to stop making Bod. Despite this, it was repeated on BBC2 right into the 1980's, and has made an impact on many a person. Perhaps not quite the classic that it's made out to be, the whole series is now out on DVD, so you can defragment it to your hearts content. The episode listing is:

Bod's Present
Bod and the Dog
Bod and the Apple
Bod and the Kite
Bod and the Cherry Tree
Bod and the Rain
Bod's Dream
Bod on the Beach
Bod and the Birds
Bod and the Cake
Bod and the Grasshopper
Bod in the Park
Bod and Breakfast

The Complete Bod series can be picked up for £9.99 from amazon.vo.uk (ex. P+P).

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