It appears Bagpuss has been voted the favourite children’s TV animal of all time in an online poll. The lovely fat candy striped cat beat other creatures such as Tom and Jerry, Winnie the Pooh and the magic Roundabout. Bagpuss has always been my favourite despite being just “an old saggy cloth cat and a bit loose at the seams.” Only 13 episodes of Bagpuss were ever made with each episode beginning with Emily saying the words:

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss
Old Fat Furry Catpuss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright, be golden and light
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing

to the old stuffed toy in the window who would awake when she left the shop and investigate the broken object Emily had left him. Bagpuss, Madeline, Professor Yaffle and the mice would then proceed to fix the object and tell a story about it, with much high pitched singing by the mice.

I love Bagpuss.

New Ofcom proposals could mean that we will soon have more frequent commercial breaks on TV. Currently ITV1, Channel 4 and Five are allowed to show an average of seven minutes of advertising an hour. Advertising is also restricted to one period per half hour programme and two per hour long programme. Under the new proposals these timing restrictions could be dropped meaning you would have two breaks in a half hour show rather than one. You could also have adverts in films every 30 minutes instead of every 45 minutes. I feel there is already enough advertising shown on TV so if these measures are put into place I will simply record everything I want to watch on Sky + and forward through the adverts.

I have been watching Hugh’s Chicken Run on Channel 4 with interest. The programme follows celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as he tries to educate the people in Axminster about the poor treatment of cheap chickens. He particularly highlights special offers that give you two chickens for five pounds, effectively a £2.50 chicken and shows how these chickens are raised and slaughtered within a 30 day period. Personally before I watched the programme I already brought free range chicken, mainly because I find it has more flavour to it. I was however, interested to see that many people shown on the programme did not know where their chickens came from and how they were reared. Judging by the shelves at my local supermarket many people have watched the programme and have been affected by it. The section with two chickens for £5 was completely full of chicken when I visited the store today. In contrast there were no organic or free range chickens to be found at all, the shelf was empty. I also noticed that people buying chicken were carefully reading the labels and in many cases putting the cheap chicken back and walking away without buying it. It’s interesting that a television programme has so much influence. I do wonder, however, whether these new converts to free range chicken will still be buying it six months later.

I watched a documentary last night about a new type of doll called a Reborn. The dolls are highly customised to make them look as close to a real baby as possible even down to features such as veins and scratches. They weigh about the same as a real baby and have rooted hair and even manicured nails. The result is a doll like the one below.


The documentary which was shown on Channel 4 last night followed a lady who customises these dolls in order to make them look as real as she can. Personally I find the dolls more than a little disturbing but what I found more disturbing was some of the people that purchase them.

The programme centred on a few individuals, one lady who has converted a room in her house into a nursery. She owned several dolls and spent her time buying them expensive clothes, changing their nappies and styling their hair. She even went as far as to take them out shopping with her in a pram. The programme went onto to show her excitement at going to the US specifically to pick up her new “baby”, only to find it was not perfect and she would need to leave it behind, despite the fact she had already bonded with it.

Another lady featured in the documentary wanted a baby as a substitute grandson. Her grandson Harry had lived with her for the first few years of his life, when his mother had met a new partner and emigrated leaving the grandmother, missing the baby. Her solution was to visit the doll maker who made her a “Harry baby” which she appeared to adore. Her husband, however, was not so enthusiastic bout the new addition to the family. Personally I felt this lady would have benefitted from either spending some time with her real grandson or seeking some help to get over her feeling of loss.

You can view some of the clips from the documentary here but I think most people will agree there is something slightly odd about a grown woman pushing a doll around a shopping centre in a pram. As for the dolls themselves I’m not sure why but they remind me a little bit of Childs Play, maybe I’m missing the point? Either way the programme made interesting viewing.