Flashback: After School Favourites
By Ellie Patten | 27th July 2015
Feeling nostalgic? Here’s a quick run-down of some of our favourite childhood TV shows.
Arthur
Arthur may well be THE definitive after-school programme. We learnt a lot from Arthur and his friends, even if the only message we can remember now is that we really really didn’t want to catch head-lice. Although most of us went through years of watching the show without knowing that Arthur was an aardvark, and not just some strange, bear-like creature, we did manage to memorise the theme tune. Do the words: “it’s a simple message, and it comes from the heart…” ring any bells?
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
What girl didn’t wish they were Sabrina Spellman at one point or another? The charm of Sabrina was that despite her magical abilities, she really did just want to be a normal teenage girl, and feared being “weird” as much as the rest of us. From the moment she accidentally turned the most popular girl in school into a pineapple, we were hooked. We followed Sabrina through her relationship with Harvey (swoon), all the way to magical boot camp, and even onto college.
Chucklevision
The Chucklebrothers constantly failed at the tasks given to them by characters like “Dan the Van” and their ever-changing “No Slacking” employers, so named for the catchphrase often used to force the moustached brothers to work. For a show with a very strange and flimsy premise, anyone who watched the show can’t help but remember the words “to me, to you” every time they help someone lift furniture.
Tracy Beaker
A parent’s worst nightmare, and likely held responsible for the misbehaviour of pre-teens everywhere, Tracy Beaker has always been a favourite. Lines like “bog off!” and “it’s just hayfever” have secured Tracy Beaker a place in our hearts forever, as we watched her battle the adults, including the infamous “Elaine the Pain” and shun their rules.
Jungle Run
Jungle Run was the game show that everyone wanted to win. The prizes always consisted of the latest game consoles, scooters and plasma screen TVs and all you had to do to win them was work as a team to gather stone, bronze, silver and golden monkeys. Oh, and dive underwater, leap across a swamp and crawl through a maze. Every player’s greatest fear was to be trapped inside the Temple of the Jungle King, which we all genuinely believed meant you would never escape (and never claim that Gameboy).
Mona the Vampire
Thinking back to Mona the Vampire, it’s all a bit confusing: was she really a vampire? Did she really fight monsters after school? Mona was the kid with the over-active imagination that many of us can relate to. The “vampire” and her friends: Princess Giant, Zapman and Mona’s cat, Fang, would dress up every episode after school, disappearing to fight monsters which we later realised were imaginary. The show hooked onto that childhood dream of having a brave, fearsome alter-ego who can save the day, making it a paradise for escapists.