As the other half of comedy duo Trev and Simon, I completely concur with Trevor Neal’s statement.
As a professional idiot I know how much I owe to the crazed imaginations of those who created the kids’ programmes of my childhood. I dreamt of living in Pogle’s Wood, of playing with Pippin and Tog, communicating with the Clangers, visiting Hector in his house and climbing into Castle Saburac to see if Catweazle was in. (Note to kids of today; don’t climb into disused water towers.)
Childrens’ TV should not be about making vast sums of money. We’ve got Little Britain and Prime Suspect to do that for the big wigs. And most children’s programmes are likely to cost a fraction of the budgets of prime time TV shows. Children’s TV has the marvellous possibility to nurture and excite the minds and imaginations of the young. And we should be selfish here, for we will reap what we sow. The children of today are our programme makers of tomorrow. Let’s make sure they are constantly inspired; their minds invigorated and their imaginations set alight by high quality adventurous children’s programming. They are our future, and Trev does sound like Whitney Houston (and, occasionally, dresses like her.)
Simon Hickson is a writer and performer and one half of the comedy duo Trevor and Simon - commonly regarded as Saturday Morning TV Legends. They work together and individually and recent writing credits include My Parents are Aliens, Ministry of Mayhem, Pop School, Doodle Do, Stupid, It Started with Swapshop and working for Talkback Thames in Entertainment Development.
