Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book
    The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book
    The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book
    Ebook312 pages2 hours

    The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book

    By Dean Wilkinson

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Compiled by acclaimed television scriptwriter and novelist Dean Wilkinson, The Classic Children’s Television Quiz Book is packed with fascinating facts about the shows you loved as a child as well as those programmes currently capturing the imagination of today’s young audiences. From timeless classics like Thunderbirds, Blue Peter and Dr Who to the thoroughly up-to-date Sponge Bob, the 1,000 questions in this book will not only test your memory of the characters you grew up with but your family’s knowledge of their current favourites. With a fitting foreword by popular family TV presenters Ant and Dec this book is sure to prove a hit with television lovers of all ages and, in particular, those members of the older generation who have remained young at heart.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApex Publishing Limited
    Release dateJul 18, 2011
    ISBN9781908548894
    The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book
    Author

    Dean Wilkinson

    Dean Wilkinson is a television scriptwriter, novelist and games writer. He was Ant and Dec's writer for 7 years penning the multi award winning SMTV Live & Chums. He penned 2 series of his own CBBC sitcom Bad Penny starring Graham Fellows (aka comedian John Shuttleworth), as well as 2 series of his sketch show Stupid starring Marcus Brigstock and Phil Cornwell. As a games writer he has written for the entire LittleBigPlanet series, Fantasia : Music Evolved, Driver San Francisco and Worms, amongst many many others. His long writing career has seen him scribbling for Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, Smith & Jones, Matt Berry, Brian Conley, Noel Edmonds, Chris Barry, Zig & Zag, The Krankies, Simon Pegg and Harry Hill to name drop but a few. Dean is father to three daughters, Emily, Alice and Grace. www.deanwilkinson.net

    Read more from Dean Wilkinson

    Related to The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book

    Related ebooks

    Games & Activities For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Man Out Of The Fiend

      Mar 31, 2023

      Man Out Of The Fiend
      4 min read

    • Article

      Spice World

      Sep 8, 2021

      Spice World
      6 min read

    • Article

      Full Circle

      Jun 5, 2022

      Full Circle
      13 min read

    • Article

      PWI 40th Anniversary

      Jul 3, 2019

      PWI 40th Anniversary
      32 min read

    • Article

      Inkwell

      Nov 15, 2022

      Inkwell
      1 min read

    • Article

      FASHION & ARMOR

      Sep 16, 2021

      FASHION & ARMOR
      6 min read

    • Article

      Honey Monster

      Jan 25, 2023

      Honey Monster
      5 min read

    • Article

      Championing Campion

      Mar 22, 2022

      Championing Campion
      6 min read

    • Article

      Top Ten Stories

      Jan 10, 2019

      Top Ten Stories
      18 min read

    • Article

      Ringside

      Jan 12, 2023

      Ringside
      6 min read

    • Article

      It GiRL turns 11

      Jul 5, 2023

      2012 WE LOVED THE PRINCESS OF POP, KATY PERRY! IN 2012 KATY RELEASED HER DOCUMENTARY CONCERT FILM CALLED KATY PERRY: PART OF ME. 2023 We’re still big Katy Perry fans here in the IG office, but life sure has changed for Katy! Today the singer is marri

      1 min read

    • Article

      Indie Wrestler Of The Year

      Jan 12, 2023

      Indie Wrestler Of The Year
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Def New Sound

      Jul 1, 2022

      A Def New Sound
      17 min read

    • Article

      Flashback

      Mar 23, 2022

      Flashback
      1 min read

    • Article

      Rob Halford

      Apr 27, 2023

      ROB HALFORD CAN remember exactly where he was when he first met Jack Black. “When Priest did American Idol [in 2011], he came bursting into the dressing room, ripped his shirt off, and started to scream and throw the Devil horns. That’s the thing abo

      6 min read

    • Article

      The 50 GREATEST ALBUMS OF THE 2000s

      Jul 20, 2023

      to the mighty Judas Priest would have been seriously big news even if they hadn’t produced an album worthy of their legacy, but Angel Of Retribution’s urgency and fury picked up right where Painkiller left off back in 1990. The dual guitar assault of

      15 min read

    • Article

      Epic Eulogies

      Feb 12, 2022

      Epic Eulogies
      8 min read

    • Article

      The How-to Guide

      Jul 21, 2022

      The How-to Guide
      7 min read

    • Article

      Choosing DISTRACTION

      Jun 22, 2020

      Choosing DISTRACTION
      8 min read

    • Article

      Winter Car Hacks

      Jan 1, 2023

      Winter Car Hacks
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book - Dean Wilkinson

      Title Page

      THE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S TV QUIZ BOOK

      Compiled by Dean Wilkinson

      Foreword by

      Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly

      Publisher Information

      First published in 2008 by Apex Publishing Ltd

      PO Box 7086, Clacton on Sea, Essex, CO15 5WN, England

      www.apexpublishing.co.uk

      Digital Edition converted and published in 2011 by

      Andrews UK Limited

      www.andrewsuk.com

      Copyright © 2008 by Dean Wilkinson

      The author has asserted his moral rights

      All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition, that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

      Production Manager: Chris Cowlin

      Cover Design: Siobhan Smith

      Dedication

      In memory of Mark Speight 1965 - 2008, whom Timmy and I had the enormous pleasure of working with on Timmy Towers.

      A great talent, a great bloke and a great loss to children’s television.

      www.speightoftheart.org

      Introduction

      By Dean Wilkinson

      Working largely in children’s telly since 1990, I’ve clocked up a few shows myself and modesty prevents me from including any of them in this tome - one would have thought! You’ll find SMTV Live and Stupid in here somewhere. I’m really proud of these shows, especially Stupid, and when I snuff it I want there to be a headline in my local paper stating ‘STUPID MAN DIES’.

      The emphasis of this quiz book seems to be the children’s telly of the seventies and eighties. This is because I was a kid myself at that time spending hours upon hours watching the haunted fish tank trying to escape from the reality of a grim home life. And wow, was I spoilt for choice - so many classics! and I’ve enjoyed all of those shows again whilst researching this book, either by hiring them from Amazon, bidding for the last tatty VHS versions on Ebay, or seeking out clips on You Tube.

      The American wit Lily Tomlin once said: ‘If you read a lot of books you are considered well read, but if you watch a lot of TV you are not considered well viewed.’

      Depends on the telly, Lily. I’d much rather spend an evening in front of a DVD copy of Children of the Stones or Dangermouse or Maid Marian and her Merry Men than doing anything else. I spent half my childhood watching telly, I wasted the rest, so I’m spending my adult life catching up.

      I’ve trawled the Internet, scoured books on TV history and bugged friends and colleagues in the biz for their memories, to make this the ultimate classic children’s telly quiz book. I hope I’ve succeeded.

      Even if you don’t remember the show, you can get a lot out of the DID YOU KNOW? sections, or glean amazing nuggets of information about kids’ telly by cheating and looking at the ANSWERS in the back. Impress your friends with some impromptu facts about Willo the Wisp, or The Double Deckers.

      I hope you’ll come to realise, like I did when compiling this book, that as a kid I was incredibly lucky to have such a wide and varied choice of viewing.

      But, now I’m a dad I find it heartbreaking that the children’s telly my daughters have to choose from is - colossal because of the myriad cable channels on offer, but - incredibly limited in terms of quality. There’s some really awful acquired American kids’ telly around. Really really awful!

      Not all of it though! I’ve included the fairly modern Spongebob in this book because it’s a great example of superbly crafted telly for kids, AND it follows the golden rule, kids’ telly should entertain adults too. And the American Eerie Indiana was one of the best shows of the 1990s.

      I’m a true Brit and we have got to get British children’s telly back into gear. Just look at the multitude of superbly made, (sometimes without much of a budget), imaginative and downright awe inspiring shows mentioned in this book. Catweazle, Worzel Gummidge, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Thunderbirds, The Ghosts of Motley Hall - gosh the list was so huge I simply could not cram in every show I wanted to! We have to get back those glorious must-see-TV days!

      If the British television executives stopped wasting cash on banal rubbish and put the resources into good children’s telly, they could double, even treble their viewing figures! And our youth might grow up with a sense of magical wonder instead of the feelings of desperation, bitchiness and avarice that modern telly bestows upon them. Look at any of today’s pointless celebrities and their God awful vehicles and just think about what they’re saying to our young people. The messages they’re sending out are downright dangerous! Bring back innocence, bring back imagination, bring back quality storytelling. Bring back British children’s TV! Show your support by joining the campaign Save Kids’ TV: www.savekidstv.org.uk

      Best wishes

      Dean Wilkinson

      Foreword by Ant McPartlin

      Be warned, be very warned: Dean’s Classic Children’s TV Quiz Book is going to cause you a whole load of brain-aching, memory- scraping, hair-pulling moments. You may very well find yourself angrily pacing the house for hours as the answer to a question like - which actor played Fred Mumford in the first series of Rentaghost - is on the tip of your tongue! However, you may, like me, be pushed over the edge when some annoying git rings you up and gives you the answer before it comes to you! What were the chances of that?!

      And even if you don’t recall some of the many many programmes mentioned in the book, there’s still a boat load of facts and figures about the children’s telly of days gone by that’ll keep riveted for hours upon end. This is nostalgia at it’s best, so get comfortably seated on your Raleigh Chopper, open a can of Top Deck, a packet of Spangles, and dip into The Children’s TV Quiz Book and discover just how misspent your youth was.

      Ant McPartlin

      Foreword by Dec Donnelly

      Cheers, Dean, The Classic Children’s TV Quiz Book has opened up a new social chapter of my life. I can now steer any conversation around to children’s TV and rattle off fascinating fact after fact I’ve gleaned from this tome of tots, toddlers and teenage telly testimony, impressing anyone within earshot.

      For example, I rang Ant and said, ‘Morning Anthony, not to be confused with the late Anthony Jackson who played Fred Mumford in the first series of Rentaghost in 1976.’

      You see what I did, I flawlessly steered the conversation around to a subject I was knowledgeable in after having read the Rentaghost section of The Children’s TV Quiz Book. I not only impressed my friend, I also imparted my learning to him. I put the icing on the cake when I sang the entire theme tune to Rentaghost to Ant and by the end of it he’d hung up - presumably overwhelmed with euphoric nostalgia for his youth. Indeed, the man Ant is now feverishly banging on my front door with a cricket bat in his hand. Bless, he wants to play in the park like the youthful carefree young scallywags we once were. Enjoy the book, I’m off to play out!

      Dec Donnelly

      Questions

      A Plethora O’Puppets

      Children’s telly has given us so many puppets over the years and they are a merchandising man’s dream. Pinky and Perky for example (they never married did they!) Puppets are immortal, but their human animators and sidekicks are not and many tend to move on to more ‘grown-up’ telly before they get typecast.

      Can you match the anthropomorphic characters with their one time, on screen human collaborators?

      1. Nookie Bear

      2. Gordon the Gopher

      3. Lord Charles

      4. Sooty

      5. Orville the Duck

      6. Lambchop

      7. Posh Paws

      8. Zig and Zag

      9. Ed the Duck

      10. Basil Brush

      Humans: Chris Evans, Andi Peters, Noel Edmonds, Roy North, Roger De Courcey, Ray Alan, Shari Lewis, Mathew Corbett, Phillip Schofield, Keith Harris

      DID YOU KNOW?

      Orville The Duck was named after Orville Wright who also ‘wished he could fly’. Mr Wright eventually did.

      AUTHOR’S NOTE:

      Neil Waters stole my Gordon The Gopher puppet from me and tried to throw up in it because I’d been annoying him with it. That’s him named and shamed (we were both 23 at the time by the way).

      Rentaghost

      If you wanted to hire a ghost in the 70s and 80s, you rang Rent-A-Ghost, an agency of spooks, run by spooks. Fast paced schoolboy wit and some of the greatest character actors - sadly many of them really are ghosts now. Michael Stainforth (1942 - 1987) was the glue that held the show together.

      11. Name the mischievous poltergeist jester - Edward Tudorpole or Timothy Claypole?

      12. Which actress played Hazel The McWitch - Molly Weir or Phyllida Law?

      13. Anthony Jackson played the ghost who started the agency, but was the character’s name Peter Geist or Fred Mumford?

      14. Name the long suffering neighbours of the Rentaghost crew - the Perkins, Jenkins or Larkins?

      15. What was the troublesome pantomime horse called - Dobbin, Trigger or Winnie?

      16. Can you remember the first line of the theme song? (Hint: it mentions a mansion house.)

      17. In which year did the show begin - 1970, 1973, 1976 or 1979?

      18. What year did the show end - 1984, 1986, 1989 or 1993?

      19. Which human character did the late actor Edward Brayshaw play - Harold or Bertram Meaker?

      20. In which soap did Sue Nicholls (Nadia Popov) later ‘pop up’?

      DID YOU KNOW?

      Prime Suspect writer Lynda La Plante played the part of Tamara Novek.

      Ann Emery, who played Ethel Meaker, is the sister of the late comedy genius Dick Emery - egad, Mistress Meaker, ‘tis true!

      Anthony Jackson, the actor who played the ghost who started the agency, sadly died in 2006, like Stainforth he was a truly gifted actor and we salute them both.

      Swap Shop

      Swap Shop was a ground breaking Saturday morning format as it was the first show to rely

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1