The Magical World of Kids' TV (UK) Quiz

Answer: Emily

The quote is from the introduction for "Bagpuss". Creators Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin incorporated Firmin's daughter, Emily, into the story by casting her as the owner of Bagpuss, and the introduction was voiced by Postgate himself. The show was all filmed at Firmin's home and the shop window in the opening scene was the family's dining room window. Emily Firmin, aged about 8 at the time, was paid a bag of sweets for her morning's work.

Big Ears owned a black cat which was once kidnapped by a wizard to be turned into a wizard's cat, but Noddy rescued it. Jamie owned a dog called Wordsworth, and a Magic Torch. Mavis was the fairy in "Willo' the Wisp" and the dog was The Moog.

Answer: fez

When Mr Benn entered the costume shop dressing room, and tried on a costume and hat, he would be transported to a magic land for a hair-raising adventure; his time was up when the shopkeeper appeared in the land to take him home. Then Mr Benn would put on his own bowler hat and everything would return to normal. But the shopkeeper always wore a fez.

"Mr Benn" is the creation of writer and producer David McKee who also created "King Rollo" and "Elmer the Patchwork Elephant".

Answer: moustache

Without his moustache he had no magic powers, and this was the main plot of the feature length film made in 1970, when the Blue Cat stole the moustache.

It was Zebedee who first turned Mr Rusty's under-used carousel into a magic roundabout that would always be a fun place for children to play. The four children seen on it each week were Florence, Basil, Paul and Rosalie.

Dougal's voice and character were based on the comedian Tony Hancock, which may explain the huge adult audience it got when it first aired.

Answer: Grotbags

"The Pink Windmill" series was just one of several TV shows starring Rod Hull and and his temperamental bird-puppet, Emu, in a 30+ year career. Famously, interviewer Michael Parkinson was the subject of one of Emu's assaults, as were Johnny Carson and Richard Pryor amongst many others. Emu even ate the Queen Mother's bouquet while meeting her after a Royal Variety performance. No one was safe.

Grotbags eventually got her own spin-off series with several sidekicks including a CP30-style butler named Robot Redford.

Following Rod Hull's untimely death in 1999 while fixing his TV aerial, Rod's son, Toby, took over the care of Emu, and together they continued the legacy in pantomime and in their own TV series.

Answer: Nutwood

The original comic strip was created by artist Mary Tourtel, first appearing in "The Daily Express" in 1920. He first appeared on TV in 1969. Rupert Bear was brown at first, but to save on printing costs in the newspaper he was regularly printed as a white bear, which eventually stuck.

The Rupert Bear Museum is a permanent exhibition within the Canterbury Heritage Museum, Kent, where Tourtel lived. Other children's classics are also on display, including the original Bagpuss.

"Camberwick Green" was a sister programme of "Trumpton" and "Chigley", and home to the likes of Windy Miller; Noddy lived in Toyland; Cuckoo Land was the destination each night in "Jamie and the Magic Torch".

Answer: Sooty

Sooty Bear is a glove puppet that has been entertaining children with magic tricks since 1948 when creator Harry Corbett bought the glove puppet from a stall in Blackpool as a present for his son, Matthew. Harry and the mute magician Sooty first appeared on TV in a talent show in 1952, which they won. As their TV career expanded, Corbett introduced best pal Sweep, and in 1964 Soo the panda was created as a girlfriend for Sooty.

In 1976, Matthew took over the act, and although Matthew retired, Sooty, Sweep and Soo continued into the 21st century with different presenters, making Sooty the most likely candidate for the longest running children's series on British TV.

Soo once won a special puppet edition of the TV quiz show "The Weakest Link", beating Roland Rat in the final. Her winnings were donated to the World Wildlife Fund.

Answer: Bananaman

This was the introduction to the cartoon "Bananaman" ("Ever alert for the call to Action!") which was a parody on superhero style comic strips and TV shows. The TV cartoon was voiced by classic comedians "The Goodies": Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Graeme Garden.

Bananaman's superpowers included "the muscles of twenty men, twenty big men", flight, and intense stupidity. His super-gadgets included a Banana Laser Gun and electronic thermal underwear.

Just like Superman, there was a substance that could make his powers weak: mouldy bananas. Enemies included: Scotsman, who can control haggis by playing bagpipes; Skunk Woman, a parody of Catwoman; and the Foul Five, a parody of Enid Blyton's "Famous Five".

The TV show ran for most of the eighties and transferred to American and Australian screens too. Bananaman started in comic strip form in the comic "Nutty", and later made appearances in both the "The Beano" and "The Dandy" comics.

Answer: Animal Magic

Following on from his success as the British narrator of "Tales of the Riverbank" starring Hammy the Hamster, "Animal Magic" taught children about animals using the humorous approach of Johnny Morris's imagined animal conversations, dubbed over film footage of him meeting various animals in Bristol Zoo. This approach later fell out of fashion and the BBC programme ended in 1983 after 400 episodes.

Morris made a come back into our consciousnesses when "Wallace & Gromit" creator, Nick Park, asked him to voice some characters in his "Creature Comforts" series. Morris was then signed up by ITV to present a new programme similar to "Animal Magic" but sadly he died before filming began. His wife having predeceased him, Morris bequeathed his home to friend and co-presenter, Terry Nutkins.

Answer: Madam Nadia Popov

In this seventies/eighties sitcom for children, recently deceased Fred Mumford decided to set up an agency to hire out ghosts for all your haunting needs. His first ghosts were a victorian gentleman ghost, Mr Davenport, and a medieval jester, Mr Claypole. As the years progressed, other ghosts were added including a Scottish witch and a pantomime horse, Dobbin.

Madam Popov was played by Sue Nicholls who later joined the cast of "Coronation Street" as Audrey Roberts. Popov's cousin was played by Lynda La Plante, who is now more famous for her numerous award winning TV dramas such as "Prime Suspect".

Answer: Magic words

As the introduction went:

"Well now, one day Emily found a thing
And she brought it back to the shop
And put it down in front of Bagpuss
Who was in the shop window fast asleep as usual
But then Emily said some magic words

'Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss
Old fat furry cat-puss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright
Be golden and light
Bagpuss, Oh hear what I sing'..."

And then the episode began as Bagpuss and his friends woke up and tried to repair whichever broken thing Emily has brought. At the end of each episode, Bagpuss yawned and fell back asleep, along with all the other characters of the shop, no longer magic. But as the narration explained:

"Even Bagpuss himself once he was asleep was just an old, saggy cloth cat,
Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams,
But Emily loved him."