Nostalgia Sunday: Kid's TV (CBBC) Part One
After a brief interlude, welcome back to nostalgia Sunday! This is a space for me to bring you memories of my childhood, whether that is noughties TV shows or noughties food, along with a whole other vast array of things that are coming up very soon. Today's nostalgia Sunday (if you haven't already guessed it by the title) is kid's TV, and the channel today is CBBC. I have some very fond memories of CBBC, whether that be Iain and Hacker, Ed and Oucho, or being up earlier than when the programmes started so sitting on the sofa for ages watching all of the clips of the shows. But I definitely had my favourite shows (as did everyone) so here is just a few of them...
Horrible Histories
This show should also be for adults, not just for children. I'm pretty sure it's still on Netflix (and if Netflix removed it I'm going to be FUMING), but it essentially gives you all the facts about history that are quite gory and you are not likely to learn in school. More recently the show came under fire for a sketch they did over ten years ago, involving 'British things' and how not everything you may have originally thought was from Britain is, and that they are actually from other countries. Here is that clip. More notably though, the show is probably most famous for the vast array of songs it products, which are legendary. This link will take you to a compilation of all of the Horrible Histories songs. You can also watch an episode of the show here.
ChuckleVision
Ah, a show that generations of us have watched. I absolutely loved watching this show and the death of Barry Chuckle really hit me (as it hit many of us I'm sure) because I had seen him in panto and both him and Paul were brilliant. I'm fairly certain that anyone who grew up between the eighties and noughties watched this show, along with their parents and potentially their grandparents. It gave us famous catchphrases such as "no slacking" and "to me, to you", a phrase that they eventually made into a song, along with Tinchy Stryder. You can watch an episode of the show here.
The Basil Brush Show
I feel like this show is never spoken about and I often feel like I was the only one that ever watched it, but this show has to be one of my all time favourites. I'm pretty sure anyone you ask, whether they are young or old, will have watched something that had Basil Brush on it, an incredibly posh fox and probably the only fox to wear a suit, or at the very least a green one. This show was just pure comedy gold and if you would like to watch an episode of the show, you can do so here.
The Story of Tracy Beaker
"I can make my world come true. All my dreams will see me through. Doesn't matter what may come my way. Believe me now, I will win some day". An absolutely noughties ANTHEM!!! I don't think there was a single child who grew up in the noughties who didn't watch Tracy Beaker. I mean, it was impossible to miss it. If you never watched the series when it first aired, CBBC aired repeats of it pretty much every single day. Didn't Stormzy release a song that had this theme tune in it? If he has, I won't lie, I haven't listened to it but promise to at some point. The show made the care system look like a really fun thing to be in (which I am aware it totally isn't), whilst having some deep storylines, such as Tracy always waiting for her Mum to turn up, Justine fighting for her Dad's attention, and the struggle of wanting to be fostered or adopted but prospective foster/adoptive parents only wanted the younger 'cute' kids. You can watch an episode of the show here.
Copycats
This show was on towards the end of the noughties, but I still absolutely loved it. It was the first time I had watched Sam and Mark and they have definitely found a place in my heart as one of my favourite presenting duos. This show often involved two families coming on who had to take part in different games, such as music and drawing, but they were all in separate booths and the final person had to get their answer as close to what the actual answer was as possible. It was essentially a modern version of Chinese whispers. You can watch an episode of the show here.
Shaun the Sheep
If you like Wallace and Gromit then you would LOVE this show. I kind of feel that the best shows are the ones where the characters don't speak and you can tell what they're thinking/trying to say by the noises they make or the look on their faces. This show was just pure comedy and even though it was mostly my brother that watched this, I was still quite partial to watching an episode or two, or three, okay ALL of them. You can watch an episode of the show here.
Arthur
If you don't hear the theme tune to this show when you look at this picture, I'm going to guess that you never watched Arthur and therefore you really need to evaluate your life choices. I'm pretty sure this was the last show CBBC would put on before programmes ended at 7 (apparently they go on until 9 now which I find 1) mad; and 2) rude, considering I was then made to have to watch my Mum and Dad's programmes). My favourite character was D.W. as she was so sassy (plus, what did D.W. even stand for?). You can watch an episode of the show here.
Prank Patrol
You've been pranked by the prank patrol! This was a God tier programme that deserved way more credit than I actually think it got. Also, can we just take a second to appreciate Barney Harwood. Was it weird for a seven-year-old to fancy him? Probably, but that was over ten years ago and I'm over that now; plus it's not like I knew him or he knew me so nothing could be done about it. The fact that they always got away with these pranks and the whole hidden camera thing was amazing. I have linked one of my favourite episodes, which was the karate kid one, which you can watch here.
Dick and Dom in da Bungalow
This show is definitely my FAVOURITE CBBC show of ALL TIME! It's probably actually my favourite childhood show and you just can't rank it - it is unrankable. I discovered some old episodes of this on YouTube and I'm not ashamed to say it, I do regularly watch the episodes just to relive a bit of my childhood. You definitely could not have this show on TV now as I cannot bear to think the amount of complaints Ofcom would receive about it. One of the best parts of the show was bogies, which you can watch here. I think possibly one of the most iconic songs from the show was the 'stoke-on-trent' song by the cat, which just shows how crazy the show was and you can watch that here. As the show aired in 2002, I think I probably would have watched the last series if I did watch it when it aired, however I can definitely remember watching the Dairies, which was a look back at some of the best bits of the bungalow. But that doesn't make me any less of a fan and if they were ever somehow able to bring this show back, you best bet I will be up early on a Saturday morning just to watch it. You can watch the last ever episode of the show here.
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
I feel like people would be shocked to know that I watched it, but I did and I enjoyed it. It originally started off as my brother watching it, but then because I would also be in the same room as him I always ended up watching it too and started to enjoy it the more I watched it. I think you could probably compare it to Horrid Henry, another show that I really loved, but obviously it had it's own qualities that made it stand out from everything else. You can watch an episode of the show here.
As always with these posts, there will be a part two to this as there are just too many CBBC shows from the noughties that I absolutely loved as a kid. If you had any favourite noughties CBBC shows that you would like me to include then please let me know. Or, if any of the above shows that I talked about you also watched, please let me know what you thought of them. Or, if you have any suggestions for topics I can talk about in nostalgia Sunday, then please let me know and I may include them.
Love Beth xx