Corrie, The Clangers and The Crystal Maze

Coronation Street and Great Work of Oliver Postgate in Retrospect

Jul 1, 2009

A selection of the most important and influential British TV shows beginning with the letter C.

Continuing this massively admired and well-received series of articles (lie mode cancel) of Shows Beginning with Letters retrospective/rose-tinted nostalgia trip comes the third entry to the English alphabet: C. The run-down here features the most famous fictional street in Britain, viewers kicking in their television sets because of frustrating game show contestants, strange whistling alien creatures, an alcoholic criminal psychologist and a New Zealand man trying to avoid being attacked.

Where to start with the most famous soap to grace British TV? Soon to reach its 50 year anniversary in 2010, Coronation Street presents working class life in Manchester and has featured a cast of literally thousands, with “boring” Ken Barlow becoming the longest running fictional character on TV.

Despite some dwindling plots ratings have remained strong even in the age of multi-channel digital TV and the internet. Storylines, such as “Free The Weatherfield One” where Deirdre Rachid was imprisoned, even made it into the public consciousness in a strange, forth-wall demolishing way. Like all soaps Corrie has tackled controversial subjects such as death, divorce, rape, suicide and even serial murder. The brass band theme tune is one of the well-known pieces of music on TV.

After the universally loved Bagpuss was somewhat absent from Shows Beginning with B (apologies to anyone who was offended by that omission) it seemed only fitting that another of the late great Oliver Postgate’s work should be commended. The Clangers were a family of mouse-like knitted alien creature type things that lived underground on a strange planet and communicated through whistling. Sounds odd, but kids loved it.

The Clangers was from a time when children’s TV still embraced stop motion animation rather than a bunch of Tweeny presenters prat-falling about. The aliens also made an appearance on an episode of Doctor Who in the 70s. Now how many children’s shows can say that?

The television crime show is a horribly diluted genre that is constantly aiming to stay fresh through new means of investigation from the humble bobby on the beat to magician’s assistants solving cases. Cracker saw a foul-mouth, alcoholic criminal psychologist called Fitz (Robbie Coltrane) try to get inside the heads of suspected criminals and use his knowledge of human behaviour to suss out murders.

Opting against the usual whodunit formula, Cracker focused more on the people on both sides of the fence. Much like early Taggart (i.e. when it was any good) stories ran over several episodes and the writing team contained the talents of Paul Abbott and Jimmy McGovern. A US version was made and no-one cared.

Daytime TV is dull. That’s a fact. Whether it’s some wannabe yuppie twittering on about house prices or middle-aged crones complaining about everything it is just largely unwatchable. Except for The Crystal Maze of course. Confusingly for a popular game show to be relegated to the most vacuous of time frames it was a genius mix of puzzle games, strategy and ugly, ill-fitting jumpsuits with all games set in playing zones such as Futuristic and Mediaeval.

Although it lost some of the charm when the eccentric Richard O’Brian was replaced as host by Ed Tudor-Pole it was still entertaining and had the nation shouting at their TVs in unison at stupid contestants. It’s any wonder why it disappeared in the first place. The only problem is if The Crystal Maze did come back to the small screen chances are it would be for a celebrity version hosted by Vernon Kay or Alan Carr. So maybe it’s best to stick to the repeats.

Veteran investigative journalist Roger Cook has always been a man for heated encounters on screen, so it was rather fitting that he went on to have his own show built around the concept of probing criminal targets and then confronting them about their illegal activities with a camera crew in tow.

The show did a lot of good work in highlighting serious issues such as child pornography and people smuggling but viewers mainly tuned in for the final confrontation and to see if the man himself would survive without being punched in the face. The answer was usually no.

The copyright of the article Corrie, The Clangers and The Crystal Maze in British TV is owned by Steven Cookson. Permission to republish Corrie, The Clangers and The Crystal Maze in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.