Golden Sunsets - 50 Years of Memories - Part 3 - 1969

Week 3 and it's time for a visit to the most famous county in children's television...

1969:

The trivia:

• There was a genuine board game called "Chug A Lug" which involved smoking, drinking beer and taking soft drugs. Penalties involved running to the off license to get more beer, removing clothing or not being allowed to go to the bathroom.
• There was some small event about man landing on the Moon. It didn't get much news coverage...
• The Space Hopper became the most popular toy in Britain
• The US Air Force closed "Project Blue Book", concluding that there was no evidence to support the existence of UFO's.
• "Sesame Street" featuring the Muppets made its debut on PBS
• William Henry Pratt, better known as horror movie star Boris Karloff, died at the age of 81

The item:

Chigley

Yes it's the third of the "Trumptonshire" trilogy after "Camberwick Green" and "Trumpton". This is the one that everyone remembers because of *that* train song...

God how I loved all three of these series. Apart from "Playschool", they are probably my earliest memory of children's television. There's just something so quintessentially British about the little lives of all those characters, each with their own song and their own idiosyncrasies. All three shows have their own singular joys. The Trumpton fire brigade - who never get to put out a real fire. The characters rising out of the music box at the start of "Camberwick Green". The soldiers at Pippin Fort. But it was the sight of Brackett plodding endlessly down the bizarre, modern art covered, corridors of Winkstead Hall in search of Lord Bellborough (who was usually to be found next to a telephone the annoying old duffer !)  that was always my favourite.

It's difficult to accurately date when I first watched Gordon Murray's era defining programmes. They were all shown so often that the repeats blur into one.  What's odd though is that I don't have any memories of thinking "Oh I've seen this one before". There is just a haze of happy memories punctuated by Brian Cant's wonderful narration. I do know that when I first went to school I used to come home for lunch sometimes and more often than not there would be an episode to watch as I ate my cheese sandwiches or  beans on toast. What also made "Chigley" rather unique was that it featured guest appearances of characters from the other earlier shows. It was probably my first experience of a franchise crossover, and there was always a surge of excitement when someone like Captain Flack and his brigade put in an appearance.

Chigley was described as an industrial hamlet and it certainly was a hive of activity, with a lively wharf, family run pottery and Mr. Cresswell's biscuit factory all within a short distance of each other. Unlike the other two series, there wasn't really a hub (such as the town square) and the action moved between locations as the story dictated. What you could always guarantee was that there would be a need for a train journey and dear old Lord Bellborough would put on his overalls and get Bessie out of her shed and chuffing along the tracks to the strains of "time goes by when you're the driver of a train". He'd rope long suffering Brackett into things too although he never seemed to do much. Lord B obviously had a lot of time on his hands as he didn't need much of an excuse to turn train driver (no Lady Bellborough to keep him busy I guess). Not only that but he also operated the vintage Dutch organ for the dancers at the end of the day jamboree outside the biscuit factory. Why was it such an elaborate musical device? Why did they feel the need to celebrate their daily freedom from biscuit servitude with a polka?  No idea. Perhaps his lordship was secretly an eccentric tyrant who insisted that the workers that used his land jigged about for his sadistic pleasure. We'll never know...

"Chigley" and its stablemates were a huge influence on a generation of children who grew up to be musicians, programme makers and creators in later life. Surreal rock / folk band "Half Man Half Biscuit" released "Time Flies By" and "Trumpton Riots". Lyrics in one of  the songs by "Oasis" obliquely referenced faithful retainer Brackett. In Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's seminal comic book "Preacher", one depraved character sings the familiar train song as he rides naked on a bicycle - as you do. If you are 40+ years old, those images and tunes are woven tightly into your DNA.

With DVD's the default home entertainment media of choice in the early 2000s, I ended up buying a whole host of children's favourites on shiny disc. The "Trumptonshire Trilogy" was one of the first. 36 episodes of pure bliss which take me back to a time when kids TV didn't have to be about high octane action or another way of selling innocent little cherubs the latest over-priced tat - just slices of life in a quaint English county (although that one about Windy Miller getting drunk....hmmm...). Maybe I'll get to show "Chigley" to my grandchildren one day  - at which point they will probably complain about it's lack of 3D virtual reality interaction or some such nonsense.

I'll leave off this week with the sheer brilliance that is the "Life On Mars" homage. If only they could have done Gene Hunt chasing down some "nonces" on a train...

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