Another day, another way to procrastinate, or why I love children's television shows

Another day, another rambling entry to the blog...

I love children's telly. I think I watch more children's television than I do adult's, which is probably only slightly fewer hours than I spend watching films. That last sentence made little sense, but rest assured, I do watch a lot of kid's tv. Partly because I have nothing particular to do during the day and partly because daytime television is a ghastly void of auction shows, talk shows, bad game shows and repeats of things I've already seen. Course, I only watch good children's tv, I'm not so desperate for background noise that I'll watch Chucklevision and Captain Mack, hell no, I'm a discerning 22-year-old woman after all!

The nice thing about kid's programs is there are certain types of shows that are always on; there's always one worthy show about animals, there's always a couple of wacky parody cartoons, a couple of shows in which loud male presenters do "fun" science, there's always the girly drama about best friends and the slightly less gender specific show about an eccentric family, there's always the cutesy program designed to send very small children to sleep, and... well you get the idea. And within ten seconds after tuning in, it's easy to work out which category you're watching, unlike grown up telly that can't make it's mind up. It's also reassuring that kid's tv is still just as watchable now as it was when I was younger and more easily amused.

I have three favourite categories myself. First is the ever-so-cute stuff I tend to refer to as "hangover telly". You know the sort of thing: gently paced slices of nothingness narrated by silken-voiced celebrities and featuring adorable characters designed by Ragdoll or whatever company is trying to replace them. At the moment it's shows like Waybuloo (aw yoga for tots, what a sweet idea!), In the Night Garden (although there is something innately creepy about the way the characters nod), and Bookaboo (in which celebs read picture books to a puppet. One episode had Meatloaf reading a book about a wolf. It was awesome). The second is the "funny stuff for little boys and little girls who hang around with little boys" category, which splits into "naughty character" shows like Horrid Henry (he's like Dennis the Menace for the new millennium) and Bear Behaving Badly (in which a puppet blue bear who talks entirely in catchphrases), and the "gross stuff" subcategory, including such classics as Wolves, Witches and Giants (in which Spike Milligan narrates fairy tales with typical surrealism and irreverence), Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (in which Nigel Planner narrates impish cautionary tales). Finally there's the "standard funny cartoon" category, for which I'm always spoilt for choice, though I'm currently giggling at The Twisted Whiskers Show (which is old fashioned Looney Tunes style humour but in CGI and is actually surprisingly good), The League of Super Evil (a superhero parody involving hopeless supervillains who all have suspiciously familiar voices), The Secret Show (a stylishly animated spy parody) and of course Shawn the Sheep (which surely needs no introduction). Of course since I'm a bit of a goth and a bit of a geek I'm drawn to parodies and all things ooky spooky, so I'm keeping an eye out for reruns of Frankenstein's Cat and Zombie Hotel.

But by far my favourite kid's show of the decade has to be Young Dracula. On the surface of it, it's a variation on the "eccentric family" motif I grew up with, spiced up with a "The Little Vampire"-like storyline (remember that show? Everyone was really 80s and it was dubbed out of German. Damn I used to love that). It's full of obvious vampire jokes and worthy themes, and covers "issues" in a kid-friendly way, but what makes it great is the stylish Hammer-esque production and some brilliant characters. Keith Lee-Castle really stands out as an arrogant and extremely childish Count Dracula, stomping around dressed like Ozzy Osbourne. It's really very funny. I'm hungrily awaiting a third series, or at least a dvd, but in the mean time, all of the episodes are up on youtube thanks to the efforts of equally keen kiddies, like this person. If you have some time to kill, you know where to go.

Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go giggle at Scream Queens. Why yes, my viewing habits do only work in extremes, funny you should mention that...