Camberwick Green

I always get this one mixed up with "Chigley", so my apologies if I end up rambling on about two different programmes.

Anyway, both programmes were, I believe, originally part of the BBC's umbrella "Watch With Mother" title, a series that, undoubtedly, shaped a nation. I clearly remember worrying my grandmother to check the newspaper as soon as it arrived each weekday morning to see which character was featured that day. Other programmes in the series included "Andy Pandy" (who, even at the tender age of five, I considered to be a right wimp), "Bill and Ben" (Kings of the "Watch with Mother" gang), and Hector's House (a later addition to the gang, I believe, which never possessed the same charisma as its predecessors).

"Camberwick Green" (and/or "Chigley") featured a host of fascinating characters: the trusty firemen (no demands for a 40% pay rise in the Camberwick Green division - a slippery pole and a shiny fire engine, and they were happy firemen); Windy Miller, the rustic windmill operator, who always managed to time his walk so that he passed between the rotating blades of the windmill without having to run or pause in order to avoid injury; the dear old lady who sold flowers; the fat mayor; the town clerk with the glasses. No five year old could help but be gripped by the dramatic twists and turns in their lives.

"Camberwick Green" and "Chigley" were invaluable in instilling a moral backbone into the tots of the 60s, thereby shaping today's movers and shakers in the UK. "Bananas in Pyjamas" and "Teletubbies"? Pah! and Piffle! - what hope for a nation whose future leaders have been raised on such uninspiring rot?

...wound up and ready to play. But, this box can hide a secret inside it. Can you guess what is in it today?

So began all the episodes of 'Camberwick Green', a peaceful, sleepy village in Trumptonshire, the first of the Gordon Murray puppet series. One would be on the edge of one's seat, trying to guess which character would come turning up out of the music box, to the haunting, high-pitched tune.

It might have been Peter Hazel the Postman, Jonathan Bell the farmer, Mickey Murphy the baker, Mr. Carraway the fishmonger or - best of all - Windy Miller. Each episode centred on this particular character, the story and events developing around him or her. The viewer tended to follow the character through a day, seeing where he or she lived and worked, and trying to join in with his or her own, catchy little song.

For example : "Mr. Murphy is a master baker, pudding, pie and pastry maker, biscuits, buns and birthday cakes; everything is masterly that Murphy makes!"

The episode ended with the character's return inside the musical box, with narrator Brian Cant wishing them, "Good-bye!"

The strengths of the series were its good plots, repeated sequences (so important for children, like the musical box) and its rounded, memorable characters. Who can forget nosey gossip Mrs. Honeyman (we never saw her chemist husband - with a wife like her, he probably never spoke), Mrs. Dingle in the Post Office with her yappy dog Packet, P.C. McGarry Number 452, wealthy Dr. Mopp with his grand house and car and - above all - Windy Miller, with his penchant for home-brewed cider? There was room enough in Camberwick Green for Pippin Fort, where lived Captain Snort, Sergeant Major Grout and the six Privates Armitage, Featherby, Hopwood, Higgins, Lumley and Meek. ("Driving along in an army truck, in a humpity, bumpity army truck...").

Such was their popularity that ornamental figures of many of the characters in 'Camberwick Green', 'Trumpton' and 'Chigley' have been available for sale in the last few years. Videos of some episodes have been also produced. It is a compliment to the programme that I can remember so much about it, so many years later.

My brother and I loved 'Camberwick Green' and its offshoots. In the early 1970s, we were fortunate to attend an exhibition of life-size puppets of the series, in Clacton in Essex, and we still have the photographs! The series deserves to be repeated; it was a classic.

What amazes me to this day is that Camberwick Green was the only television show ever to really and perfectly cater for the needs of small children and to really adapt the story telling to their viewing habits. The pace is very slow, boring for an adult but just right for a small child to follow. Sets are lovingly made but never with so much detail that you can't take them in and there is a good mix of story telling and music. The 15-minute format is also perfect for a child's attention span. All that is pretty impressive. The show(s) are centered around a handful of characters who turn up over and over again. These characters are lovingly made. Some reviewers have criticized the show for not giving an accurate picture of 60s Britain. Two things: it never meant to do so and secondly there is quite an interesting contrast between old fashioned people like Windy Miller and the technology focused farmer. There is Windy but there is also the biscuit factory.So to some extent it shows a changing society without taking sides. Needless to say, you have to watch the lovingly made parody in Life on mars season 2.

Every time that I hear the theme tune, I wish that I was seven years old again.

What would today's media make of a kids show which features a character who gets drunk in his home made cider?

If you saw this as a kid, as soon as you hear the chiming mandolin notes of the opening theme you're mesmerised. This was the model for a thousand kids' shows, but what it has that most of them lack is that quality of calm. It really strikes me, seeing it again after so many years, how deeply it feels rooted in the past. Not the 1960s; with its farm smocks, mutton-chop sidies, penny farthings, windmills and crank-started motor cars, it feels more like the Edwardian era or even earlier. It's all about stability, continuity, and scepticism about change - several eps revolve around some art of the modern 'grid' going wrong, and the villagers having to rely on the old ways as maintained by Windy Miller. This is very much the opposite to the message of kids' programmes today; in fact these seem to be values which have now largely died out, and the battle for modernity (even in the mind) won.

So this is now, even more than at the time, a haven for those of us who feel bruised by the avalanche of improvement coming down on our heads. It's nothing short of amazing that it was created by a total of only seven people - today, with all the improvements, it would take at least a hundred. The stories are nothing much - maybe that's the attraction - but what really makes it is that fantastic acoustic music by Freddie Philipps. He deserves an MBE for it, at least - it just takes you away from yourself and into a better place: Camberwick Green. I suppose he was also responsible for the sound of Windy Miller's sails going round which, once you've heard it, it with you for life.