Come and learn with Auntie Mabel (Come Outside)

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	Come Outside
Date:	09/10/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

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Any parent with a child knows that for at least a little bit every day, you're going to be stuck watching whatever they're watching. My daughters favourite channel at the moment in Cbeebies, and Come Outside is quite a decent semi-educational programme that is shown on the channel quite regularly.

The show focuses on the adventures of Auntie Mabel, and her dog, Pippin. Each show starts with a basic story going on at mabels house, such as the water being turned off, or her needing to go and buy some bricks, and then progresses with Auntie Mabel flying off in her spotty aeroplane to some factory or warehouse somewhere, and viewers getting to see an educational aspect, always learning something . Occasionally, childrens stories are read out by Auntie Mabel too .

Now, I've watched this show for years, and Auntie Mabel has always niggled me - I could recognise her, but never knew where from . Today, out of sheer frustration, I decided to go look it up , and discovered she played Nurse Gladys Emanuel in Open all Hours!

I quite like Auntie Mabel - she's calm and soothing. I'll be honest, she's not terribly exciting or hyped up like some pill popping addict like a lot of TV presenters, she's just very sensible, down to earth, and friendly. In fact, she reminds me a lot of one of my schoolteachers . She reads out the stories well, and does out some expression into the characters, keeping it interesting for a young child .

Pippin the dog is the true star of the show - often the show will see Pippin going and getting up to shenanigans on her own . This dog is incredibly talented - it carries things,it covers it's eyes in shame and horror, it barks as though it was taking part in a conversation - and it's gorgeous!

I do like the education element of the show, which generally focuses on showing how something is made or how it works (although there have been a few animal based shows that have been more about telling us about the animal). This educational element always ties into the starting story of the show - for example, in one show, Auntie Mabel notices that a street lamp outside her house is broken, and report it to the council . As they come to fix it, we learn about the tools the workman uses, and how the lamps know when to come on and when to go out. I'll admit that I didn't know how this worked, so even I learned something new .

The show is a little dated, and lacks some of the glitz, glamour and high budget effects of more recent shows - but it was first aired in 1993! Being 16 years old, I can forgive the out of date outfits, and the slight cheesiness to some aspects.

Overall, I really like the show - it's not the most exciting, energetic, or gripping childrens TV show around, but it really does excell in the educational element without overly dumbing it down . And Pippin the dog is a true star!

4 Stars - one off for being occasionally a little unexciting .

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