196 Mr Men

First  watched  :  Uncertain

A  couple  of  years  ago  my  son  was  watching  Channel  5's  Milkshake !  in  the  mornings  and  it  was  good  to  see   the  Mr  Men  still  flourishing  on  there  as it  is  is  to  see  anything  that's  endured  from  my  childhood  through  to  his. I  have  to  say  it  wasn't  one of  his  favourites.

Mr  Men  was  first  broadcast  on  31.12.74  which  surprises  me; I'd  have  said  1976  if  pushed. Roger  Hargreaves's  simply  drawn  colourful  figures   and  little  stories  promoting  tolerance  for  difference  and  eccentricities   were  an  instant  hit  and  there  was  a  fair  bit  of  merchandising  around  them. I  used  to  have  a   Mr  Happy  key  ring  ( perhaps  I  still  have  it  somewhere)  which  became  a  sort  of  lucky  mascot  for  a  while  although  my  favourite  was  Mr  Noisy, the  cheerful  red  chappy  shown  above.

Political  correctness  pushed  Hargreaves  into  introducing  Little  Miss  characters  from  1981  onwards  and  his  son  continued  the  series  of  books  after  his  death.  The  first  series  ran  for  28  episodes  with  Arthur  Lowe  doing  the  narration. Lowe  had  died  by  the  time  the  Little  Miss  characters  came  on  TV  in  1983  so  Pauline  Collins  and  John  Alderton did  the  narration. A  new version  was  made  in  the  mid-nineties  with  Geoffrey  Palmer  doing  the  narration.  This  was  shown  in  the  early  days  of  Milkshake ! ;  the  one  they  have  now  is  an  Americanised  version  with  Simon  Callow  bookending   the  narrative  but  not  actually  delivering  the  story.