Toys In The Afternoon And Books At Bedtime

Toys In The Afternoon And Books At Bedtime

"The sun was out, the sky was blue; we sat in the garden and did videos for you!"

Hmm, not the most catchy of lyrics, but never mind. With the decent weather over the Bank Holiday weekend, I was keen to at least try some OB work just in case people were getting fed up with seeing us perched on the sofa.

So a quick rummage in the shed unearthed some of my old Dinky and Corgi toys (apologies to experts in this field if I get these mixed up!) which provided us with something to talk about. The USS Enterprise model linked us back to the video on '3-2-1 : Space' as a similar one was waved around by Pat Coombs.

Mine is in Very Played-With condition, as are the rest of the items featured, so I didn't get them too close to the camera for fear of giving away just how tatty they are! But if anyone wants to see them in close-up, we could always return to them at some point in the future.

Of course, filming outside on a sunny day tends to give you a bit of a problem on the sound front, so sorry about the extraneous noises!

But apart from the off-screen shrieking and the slightly wobbly garden chairs, it didn't go too badly, hence the follow-up piece done in the evening, when it was a bit quieter.

When Warren came round the other day, he generously presented us with three books for our collection - a 'Paddington' picture book, a 'Magpie' annual and the Eighth 'Blue Peter' Book.

We've already noted how the depiction of Mr Brown in the 'Paddington' book bears (!) a suspicious resemblace to Count Arthur Strong of 'Ask The Family' fame, but we'll put that down to coincidence.

Now, I'm not going to get into the whole 'Magpie' versus 'Blue Peter' debates (for the record, I was always a 'Blue Peter' kid), but it's interesting to compare the two annuals. The 'Magpie' (copyright 1970, price twelve-and-six) one features presenters Susan Stranks, Pete Brady and Tony Bastable on the cover and generally feels a little less formal than the 'Blue Peter' one (copyright 1971, with the price neatly snipped out) which has John Noakes and Peter Purves on the cover, with Valerie Singleton on the inside pages.

Inevitably, the subjects covered have a fair bit in common. 'Magpie' visits Longleat Safari Park, later to have stronger links to the BBC with the 'Doctor Who' exhibition, while 'Blue Peter's mention of Mary Anning parallels the article on fossils in the rival volume. Bees and Holland are covered in one, dolphins and the Aztecs in the other. Both books offer you a chance to enter a competition and meet the presenters of the shows.

So thanks to Warren for coming up with these gems - and they're in pretty good nick, too! Which is why were able to feature them in close-up, hurrah!

(By Andrew Trowbridge)