New Month Old Post: first posted
20th June, 2017
It really doesn’t matter if it’s raining or it’s fine
Just as long as you’ve got time
To P-L-A-Y playaway-play, playaway,
Play-a-play, playaway.
It was sad to hear [in June, 2017] of the death of Brian Cant, once polled the most-loved voice on UK children’s television. I used to love Play Away. I would never miss it unless I had to, despite being in my twenties at the time.
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| Brian Cant, Tony Robinson, Toni Arthur and Julie Stevens in Play Away (click to play) |
Luckily, Play Away was on a Saturday afternoon when I wasn’t at work. It was full of silly jokes and sketches, some of them Pythonesque, and very musical. Its talented presenters had a vivacious energy that was simply uplifting. Children’s television is sometimes much too good for children.
And shining through it all was the childlike spirit of Brian Cant. He had a mischievous screen presence – a way every now and then of glancing into the camera as if to let you into the secret that this was every bit as daft as it looked. You never quite knew what he was going to do next. Just when he had drawn you in, he would give you a naughty nip like a playful Yorkshire terrier.
So I’ve spent a nostalgic couple of hours watching clips of Play Away on YouTube. The one above represents everything in it that was wonderful. Brian Cant hamming it up, the beautiful voice of Toni Arthur, crazy Julie Stevens, and an implausibly youthful Tony Robinson in the Court of King Caractacus.
If you want to eulogize about a man who sang a song about the fascinating witches who put the scintillating stitches in the britches of the boys who put the powder on the noses on the faces of the ladies of the harem of the court of King Caractacus …
... he’s just passed by.
Now that's a blast from the past .
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I was an avid fan but I did catch the odd episode when my younger brother was watching.
All good, clean fun.
Silly and absolutely innocent JayCee, despite the song's writer.
DeleteAnd watching it now, for the first time, I marvel at the skill of the signers. I suppose there is a method that teaches this.
ReplyDeleteI can just about sing it, but doing the signs at the same time defeats me. They were talented.
DeleteTook me a long way down the rabbit hole but my daughter must have been the right age to watch it. He definitely had charm, but the sweet nonsense of yesteryear would have been lost on today's children programmes.
ReplyDeleteInnocent is how most of us were, Thelma. I would have been appalled by some of today's "humour" even as a Monty Python fan in my twenties.
DeleteIt won't surprise you to read that I have never heard of "Play Away" - it obviously was not made for German children, and would have been untranslatable. But in the 1970s, we had some good children's TV, too; there was Kli-Kla-Klawitter-Bus (a nonsense word with no equivalent in English), Das Feuerrote Spiel-Mobil (The fire-red play automobile, a converted red fire truck), Rappelkiste ("rattle box") and some others. One of my favourites was Sesame Street, which had its own German version.
ReplyDeleteOh, Librarian. When I lived in Gaithersburg MD, I lived in a condominium above a school teacher who was one of the minds behind the creation of the original Sesame Street! Her name was Elsie. Her last name began with an R, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. Roberson? Robison? Robertson?
DeleteI had never heard of your Brian Cant, Tasker, but it looks as if he truly got a kick out of what he was doing.
Meike: There were lots of course lots of other children's programs, some similar to those you mention. I liked to watch with our own children. The Basil Brush Show, Playbus and Chuckle Brothers come to mind.
DeleteDebby: Brian Cant always seemed to show absolute joy in that he was doing - a natural children's entertainer.
Like Meike, I had never heard of "Play Away" or indeed Brian Cant. They had both passed me by! But I had heard of Toni Arthur who made good folk music with her ex-husband Dave in the seventies.
ReplyDeleteWere you a stalwart member of the Tingha and Tucker club?
DeleteOur television set could only show BBC until we got a new one in 1970 I think. So again - I had never heard of Tingha and Tucker.
DeleteWhat deprivation! I'll put you down as a Pinky and Perky fan then.
DeleteI preferred Perky to Pinky. Perky always seemed more down-to-earth.
DeleteDear Tasker, thank you for that wonderful tip - I never had seen this show before!
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I will have to watch it alone on Youtube as the triplets are only almost 4 years old and do not watch TV (sometimes this Grandmother shows them a tiny bit on her cellphone: a song from Mary Poppins or a little comic with The Mouse - but that's that.
We read out a lot children books, and I do theatre with paper sets.
But they already share my enthusiasm for British humour!
You could print out the words (see end of song) and see if they can sing it - or you sing and see if they can up each phrase as you go "all together now".
DeleteThey can sing some lines of "Pretty Flamingo!" - in English, because I showed them on my cellphone the beautiful London city at the time then, as I enjoyed it when I was young - on the song's official video.
DeleteI remember seeing this when it was first broadcast back in the '70s. Always enjoyed Play Away whenever I caught it on Saturday afternoons. Brian Cant (even though he could) is a legend of television for children.
ReplyDeleteIt was innocent and very silly. Absolutely brilliant.
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