Apex Publishing Ltd PO Box 7086, Clacton on Sea, Essex, CO15 5WN, United Kingdom Tel: 01255 428500 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.apexpublishing.co.uk _______________________________________________________________________________________ BOOK EXTRACT Title: The Classic Children's Television Quiz Book Author: Dean Wilkinson Foreword by: Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly Publication Date: 7 November 2008 Page Extent: 150 ISBN: 1-906358-25-7 ISBN 13: 978-1-906358-25-9 Book Type: Hardback Classification: Television Price: £9.99 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 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? PUPPET HUMAN 1. Nookie Bear Chris Evans 2. Gordon the Gopher Andi Peters 3. Lord Charles Noel Edmonds 4. Sooty Roy North 5. Orville the Duck Roger De Courcey 6. Lambchop Ray Alan 7. Posh Paws Shari Lewis 8. Zig and Zag Mathew Corbett 9. Ed the Duck Phillip Schofield 10. Basil Brush 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 heavily on live phone-ins and outside broadcasts. Viewers could ring in and swap their old crap with a complete stranger’s old crap. Enigmatic Noel Edmonds was the shopkeeper with the nicest beard on telly. 21. What was the show’s full title? 22. Was Cheggers’ outside broadcast feature called Keith’s Klutter Klearout or Swaporama? 23. How many episodes did it run for - 99, 146, 172 or 209? 24. Which children’s newsreader was also a presenter? 25. Was the never-seen technician who lowered the prize globe every week called Pat, Dave or Eric? 26. How did the dinosaur puppet Posh Paws get his name? 27. In which year did Swap Shop finally close its doors - 1980, 1981 or 1982? 28. Name the spoof pop group Edmonds, Chegwin and Philbin were in - Ketchup, Piccalilli or Brown Sauce. 29. And what was the name of their single? 30. Presenters Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin are brother and sister, true or false?.