The Sooty Show

A simple clever puppet kiddie children show about social and academic learning.

Its pretty good.

Verdict: Goodie the Sooty

I quite literally grew up with "The Sooty Show" - I started watching as a toddler and continued watching right up until my early teens. In an age when children's TV seems to have become all sanitised and scientific, it was great to remember the little yellow teddy bear and all the mischief, mayhem and magic!

It's a simple show, comprised of several hand puppets and the human host (Matthew Corbett, when I watched). Yellow teddy bear Sooty (who never actually speaks!), his adorable if dim-witted pal Sweep, a little grey dog who only ever squeaks, sensible panda Soo, and in later years Sooty's Little Cousin Scampi, together with their long suffering guardian Matthew, all live together. And trouble is never very far away - especially since Sooty has a magic wand and a mischievous streak!

The stories are simple, but everything in Sooty's world, from gardening to delivering the post to inventing, is an adventure. And usually a very funny one at that! Matthew tries to keep order amongst chaos, but usually doesn't manage it - in one episode I remember Sooty's magic going awry and Matthew turning into a lion, a monkey, a penguin and a monster all in quick succession. But everything always comes all right in the end with the magical refrain "Izzy wizzy, let's get busy!" Bang in the video, and get ready for a true children's classic!

Who knew you could have so much fun with three hand puppets, one of whom was mute and one who didn't do anything but squeak? But it's true as 'The Sooty Show' was such a successful children's show that it ran for nearly three decades. The show revolved around Matthew Corbett, who ran a shop with his three 'friends' Sooty the bear, Sweep the adorable squeaky dog and Soo the panda (who was also annoyingly condescending at times, but there you go!). Occasionally, they were joined by Sooty's baby cousin Scampy.

The quartet always managed to find themselves involved in mini adventures that sometimes ended with a little moral to teach the wee ones watching the show about how to be good little boys and girls and other times it saw Sooty getting out his wand to perform a little magic (I'll never forget the spell 'izzy, whizzy, let's get busy!'). All in all, it was very cute and certainly kept me occupied even when I was a bit too old to be watching it!