Usually I hate these sorts of lists: “Top 10 blah”, “Top 5 wotsits”…but that’s because they mostly have an American bent.

I have nothing against the American slant, but they just don’t mean much to me because I’m British so I grew up with British TV in the days when the only 24 hour channel was ITV and even that broadcast text for a few hours in the early morning.

So anyway, here are some programmes that I enjoyed that others may have forgotten. In no particular order:

Pigeon Street

The cast of pigeon street

Pigeon Street was a peculiar programme from the late 70s and early 80s. It was regularly mentioned in my ‘Buttons’ magazine when I was a small child and I remember it for having colourful characters and cheerful songs.

Pigeon Street was a simple premise – it followed the lives of the residents of the eponymous street, and the pigeons they share it with, as they go about their daily routine.

The memorable characters were Molly and Polly the twins, distinguishable from each other only by the initial letter on their jumpers, and their parents Doctor and Missus Glossup; Mr Jupiter the amateur astronomer; Mr Baskerville, an amateur detective; Hugo the chef and his wife Long Distance Clara – striking a blow for Women’s lib as a long distance trucker as far back as the 70s; William the window cleaner and Mr Macadoo the pet shop owner.

A nice thing about Pigeon Street was that it featured many different ethnicities and cultures: a young black family, an asian family, some white families a female long distance lorry driver and her chef husband who prepares *her* dinner while she’s out at work. Radical stuff indeed

Bertha

Bertha

Bertha is the best and most expensive machine at Spottiswood Factory. She can make just about anything you ask her to, though she may sometimes need some guidance!

Bertha was stop motion animated and looks jerky by today’s CGI standards, but I think it means it retains a certain quaint charm in a high tech age.

The other workers in the factory, Ted Turner (yes really), Mrs Tupp the tea lady, Nell and Flo, and all the others, are very fond of Bertha.

A DVD is available from Amazon.co.uk but sadly only contains 4 episodes which is hardly enough to get your teeth into

Henry’s Cat

Henry's Cat title screen

Ahhh, Henry’s Cat – another show that I’ve recently bought on DVD and, thankfully, the DVD contains far more episodes than the Bertha one. In fact DVDs of all three series that were released are available.

This also has a certain charm, but this time it’s for the wacky story lines (several times things turn out to be food induced dreams), the crazy characters like Henry’s Cat (no proper name) and Chris Rabbit, and the fact that at least the first series was drawn in felt tipped pen, giving it a strange home made quality.

Henry’s Cat’s adventures take him everywhere, from having a sports day to being both president and a detective.

DVD again available from Amazon