"And now... here's The Gallery..."

"And now... here's The Gallery..."

It's hard to describe how much 'Vision On' meant to children of the 1960s and 70s, but I'll have a go...
Running from 1964 to 1976, and designed to appeal to deaf children, its constant stream of highly inventive visual material fired the imagination of young viewers and is long overdue for a DVD release.

If you were lucky enough to be there at the time, listing a few of its regular elements should provoke all manner of memories. Things that have stuck with me over the years include the flat-capped Digger, who worked underground and dug up all manner of strange objects. The Cuckoo Clock, the Dinosaur and the Tortoise would always be welcome, though there was always something odd about The Burbles, two unseen entities that lived in a grandfather clock (shades of The Master from 'The Deadly Assassin').

Ironically for a series designed for the deaf, stock music and sound effects would also play an important part. Hearing many of the tracks again for the first time in many years, it's amazing how many of them were instantly recognisable.

All sorts of talented people were involved with making ' Vision On'. We have already mentioned vision-mixer turned director Clive Doig, but Patrick Dowling, Tony Hart, Pat Keysell and Sylveste(r) McCoy all make invaluable contributions. And it would be no exaggeration to say that mad inventor supreme Wilfred Makepeace Lunn is one of the reasons I became a scientist.

It's a glorious series that rejoices in the opportunities that televison offers and we cannot recommend it highly enough.

On buying the DVD of 'The Adventure Game' we grinned like idiots when the fast-moving furry snake/worm thing from 'Vision On' made a guest appearance in one episode, but that's the genius of Patrick Dowling for you!

(By Andrew Trowbridge)