Hey kids, Jackanory's back!

Filed by: Darren on November 27, 2006 at 20:10
Filed In: Books, TV

Great news, folks. After a ten year hiatus (too long! too long!) the BBC has brought back classic kids' story-telling series Jackanory.

Showing this week is a three-part adaptation of Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's fantasy tale Muddle Earth [Amazon]. The first part was on CBBC at 4.30 today, with further installments on Wednesday and Friday, although if they do it properly they'll repeat the whole thing on Saturday morning, just before Swap Shop. I'm pretty sure that's how they used to do it when I was a kid.

Of course, this being the twenty-first century and all, the new Jackanory is a blended live action and animation spectacular, with narrator John Sessions appearing in a variety of CGI guises (mind you, I remember being impressed when Jackanory did The Hobbit back in the '70s and Derek Jacoby wore a sling to do the voices for the dwarves after the Battle of the Five Armies - gotta love those '70s SFX) although I must admit I'm only judging by the trailer so far; I'm setting all three up on Sky+ for a run-through at the weekend.

Anyhow, if you ask me there should be a statutory requirement for anyone with children old enough to watch television (that's what, about three months onwards these days?) to sit them down and make damn sure they enjoy every single episode. Who knows, if more kids watched television shows about story-telling, instead of moronic game-shows full of little more than gunge, pop music and sugar-fuelled screaming, then perhaps a few more of them would still be reading books in their teens, instead of hanging around on street corners in day-glo hoodies, mainlining Tango and beating up old ladies with foam hammers. Eh?