Review of Camberwick Green: The Complete Collection

Introduction

The BBC`s Watch With Mother strand was the cornerstone of its children`s television programming from the 1950s into the 1980s. Shown around lunchtime for the preschool set (and university students who should have known better), Watch With Mother introduced two generations of littleuns to great characters such as Andy Pandy, Bill and Ben (The Flowerpot Men) and the Woodentops. One of the greatest titles within the WWM strand was what would become the Trumptonshire Trilogy, but on its premiere in 1966 was simply Camberwick Green.

A stop-motion animation series of thirteen 15 minute episodes, Camberwick Green was a charming rural idyll charting the lives of a handful of characters including "Windy" Miller, the local miller who could walk between the rotating blades of his windmill without ever breaking step; Doctor Mopp, the village GP; Mrs Honeyman the gossip who was always seen with babe in arms; PC McGarry, number 452; Roger Varley the sweep and eight others.

The show always opened with a credit shown on a rolling caption wound by a clown, then a fade in on a desk where a musical box stood. "Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play," Brian Cant would intone before the box would start to play and one of the Camberwick Green characters would emerge from within.

For the next fifteen minutes one was transported to a quaint animated world of charmingly stereotypical characters from an age that Britain would like to remember if it had ever really existed. Brian Cant would move sections of the narrative on with wonderful little songs that would be repeated from episode to episode and that even the most tin-eared toddler could sing along to.

It was Brian Cant`s narration and signature songs for each of the characters which gave the series much of its charm and would be repeated for the 1967 sequel "Trumpton" and 1969`s "Chigley".

The characters were simply realised - five or six-inch figures made of foam-wrapped wire with ping-pong balls for heads, and the sets were cardboard and ply. The animation style was uncomplicated, and it was the simplicity of the finished product which gave it its longevity - the three shows were repeated regularly in the Watch With Mother strand until its axing in the 1980s.

As teeny-nostalgia goes, the release of this set has to be up alongside the much wished-for Magic Roundabout which ruled the teatime airwaves in the slot before the News. A televisual classic.

Video

The series has been digitally cleaned up and regraded on video for its new release by Soho video specialists Machine Room, so colours are strikingly vivid compared with the sorry state of the show`s previous video outings, and an enormous amount of film dirt has been removed. The episodes have not been remastered in the film domain, so some episodes are still plagued by printed-in film instability which has not been addressed by the restoration process.

The episodes are presented in their original 4:3. Focus is a little soft, whites glow somewhat due to the regrading process and colour levels breathe a little, but results are satisfactory considering that a film-based restoration may not be possible.

Audio

The same time that the video was being restored, the audio (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) was denoised and declicked. It sounds the same as it did in the 1960s, which is good enough.

Features

There is a photo "art" gallery that is only for completists and a trailer gallery for other Right Entertainment titles such as Trap Door and Lavender Castle. There are no subtitles for hard of hearing viewers.

The Quaker Oats advertisements reconstructing the show and voiced by Charlie Higson which were to be included on the disc were pulled prior to the authoring stage for reasons best known to Rights Entertainment and Quaker Oats.

Conclusion

A glorious wallow in a more innocent age for fortysomething saddoes like me, and a possible antidote for some of today`s children`s television dross. If you`re too young to remember this show, without it there would be no Bob The Builder, Fireman Sam or Postman Pat. With catchier (and less irritating) songs than Bob, this should keep your littluns quiet for at least the three-hour running time of the disc.