When I Was Young... Our Top 10 Kids TV Shows

How great was the telly when were were kids? Weird, wonderful characters placed in surreal surroundings, very probably inspired by creators who had eaten way too many Smarties, have shaped us 20-somethings and made us into
who we are today. Okay, maybe not, but they have definitely given a whole generation a reason to say “It's not like it used to be“.

Inspired by Paddington Bear and Blue Peter celebrating 50 years on air, we at Whisper Mag are taking a nostalgic stroll through our top ten kids TV shows. In no particular order, we have:

1. Raggy Dolls
As mixed up as the generation that watched it would become, this was all about the unloved, mismatched children's toys that were made all wrong and left alone in a big warehouse. Actually, when put like that it sounds pretty grim, but they were 'dolls like you and me', so it's all about feeling like we belong. So it's a POSITIVE message, really.

2. Rainbow
'Do do do do do-do do do do piant the whole world with a rainboooow!' Sorry, was lost in song there. Equally mixed-up was Rainbow, the programme
with an effeminate hippo and a giant bear. Nobody's too sure what Zippy was, but we all possessed a Zippy rucksack at some point. The show was aimed at pre-school children, however we all continued to watch it even when we were in junior school because we loved them so much.

3. Fun House
Long before Pat Sharpe started popping up at Skool Disko during your freshers week, the Mulleted One presented this show that included everything from go-karts to a giant house that looked very much like a child-friendly version of the eliminator in Gladiators (the original one, naturally). Every little girl wanted to be one of the twins and every boy wanted to do that race at the end for tokens. Fantastic.

4. Button Moon
Let's all follow Mr Spoon to Blanket Sky. This was a series of around 90 episodes which were repeated for most of the 80s and was aimed at the younger children. The adventures of the Spoon family - possibly the earliest example of eco-friendliness we ever got to see - kept us ticking over until lunchtime and made for great viewing. Like Rainbow, this is extremely kitsch and has an equally catchy theme tune. Fabulous pre-school fun.

5. Heman & She-Ra
Boys and girls were pacified with their very own cartoon action heroes. The brother and sister team with the impossibly great hair and fabulous
cheekbones did battle with the evil Skelator in their roles as Masters of the Universe. Girls always wanted a flying horse and killer thighs not unlike She Ra's and boys ran around the playground yelling 'IIIII have the powwwwweeerrrr!' Marvellous.

6. Thundercats
Cat-like human-esque aliens became locked in an ongoing battle with the psychotic Mumm-Ra after being left to fend for themselves in an intergalactic war between good and evil. All pretty straighforward stuff, really. Boys loved this for the fantastic animation and the great battle scenes. They argue over who got to be top dog (sorry, cat) Lion-O and sang the theme tune as much as possible. Definitely not one for the girls.

7. Care Bears
Ahh, now THIS was one for the little girls. We got lots of morality tales here, mixed in with good messages about how to tackle life in the big world of junior school. We all had our own cuddly Care Bear and - go on, admit it - you still rate Care Bears - The Movie, don't you? No? Just me then.

8. Trap Door
'Cos there's something down there!' What a show. Plasticine was never as cool as this. Poor Berk, servant to the awful Thing Upstairs, spent the entire series conversing with his best friend Boni the talking skull about what will come out of the awful Trap Door. Dark, weird and bizarre things appeared although sometime good creatures showed up, too.

9. Fraggle Rock
We loved this, didn't we? Creator of Labyrinth, the kookiest 80s film ever, Jim Henson came up trumps with this gem of a show. Here, colourful little puppets lived underground in Fraggle Rock, a place where they got to play and live off radishes. Like we said earlier, the 80s were a time
of E numbers. The loveliest thing about the Fraggles is that they could share dreams as long as their heads were touching. All very symbolic.

10. Bananaman
The schoolboy with the geekiest name (who calls their child Eric?) eats a banana and morphs into a superhero known as Bananaman. Bless him, he's not the brightest superhero in the land, but he had a heart of gold and does his best to help where he can, aided by the Crow. Awful jokes, great message for children. Eat your fruit and do your best. Think we're set for life now!