Reservations (1985)

The path to manhood is a troublesome one, particularly when the male ego sits on your shoulders like an audience demanding entertainment. And there's no beating about the bush: sex is crucial on this motorway to masculinity. Social constructs mean that men simply have to have sex to be considered a man. Better yet, being highly skilled in the old art of the bedroom Olympics will only enhance your manliness.

Agree or roll your eyes as you please, but these expectations create a special vintage of angst for young men. Exhibit A arrives in the form of young Gary in Reservations.

Camberwick Green's Forgotten Adventures

Camberwick Green ran for a single series of 13 episodes in 1966, but did you know that this wasn't the end of life in Camberwick Green? This extended universe was contained within the pages of the Pippin in Playland comic and remained forgotten by almost everyone. Until today.

The Adventurers Handbook

For many children of the 1970s and 80s, Christopher Lillicrap is an instantly recognisable name. Starting off with Playboard in 1975, Lillicrap would go on to front other series such as We’ll Tell You a Story, Flicks and Busker, whilst also writing for Rainbow and Fimbles.

So surely I, of all people, should have been aware of him. But I wasn’t. Somehow, as a child devotee of all things television, he completely passed me by. It was only when I started delving deeper into British television that I discovered who he was.

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Look! Hear!

Ah, the regional oddity of British television! Is there a more obscure area of programming to delve into and feast upon its barely remembered content? I doubt it, and Curious British Telly has always delighted in sniffing out such peculiarities. These programmes are often so obscure, in fact, that even finding a title for the show and a brief description is a miracle in itself. Fortunately, I recently stumbled across a gleaming treasure chest packed full of Look! Hear!, a BBC Midlands arts programme.

I Like Competitions Because...

Competitions don't quite seduce as they once did. The age of fiendish tiebreakers, solving riddles worthy of the finest pub bore and stockpiling empty crisp packets to win a Teasmade or a damp weekend on the Isle of Wight has vanished. Instead, the internet has demanded a need for instant gratification. Hence, competitions are now reduced to little more than scanning QR codes.

Luckily, I Like Competitions Because... is a fond, nostalgic love letter to the lost art of obsessively entering competitions, back when winning required much more than Wi-Fi.

Opening The Box of Delights - 2025 Edition

If it's Christmas time, it's surely time to dust down The Box of Delights for another watch. First airing in 1984, the BBC's adaptation of John Masefield's fantasy classic has delighted viewers for over forty years. And, if you want to take a really deep dive into The Box of Delights, Philip W. Errington's extraordinary compendium Opening The Box of Delights is the perfect ally.

Inside: Noggin and the Dragon

Due to when I was born, I was never in the perfect position to enjoy Noggin the Nog as a child. The final series aired a few months before I was born, and, along with the original 1959 - 65 run, wasn’t repeated on British television again until the early 1990s. Nonetheless, it entered my sphere of interest a few years ago for one simple reason: the dream team of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.

Two of the cornerstones of classic British children’s television, and indeed British television as a whole, Postgate and Firmin are responsible for some of the most magical memories ingrained in the national consciousness. And, being the marvels that they were, Postgate and Firmin never stopped their universes once their run on television had finished. Instead, they ensured there were expanded universes on offer to continue their gentle magic.

A little while back, I covered one of these ancilliary adventures in the form of Bagpuss on a Rainy Day, and it’s a story which didn’t disappoint, delivering everything a fan of the saggy, old cloth cat could ever want. Naturally, I wanted more of Postgate and Firmin’s output in front of me, and a chance encounter with a ‘community library in a bus stop’ left me the proud owner of Noggin and the Dragon, a story first published in 1966. And now it’s time to turn the pages and look inside.

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