On the Move

This was part of a campaign to teach 1 million UK adults to read during the 1970's and Bob Hoskins played a character that needed encouragement to learn to read. This was the first time that Bob Hoskins came to my attention on a British TV programme that appeared to be a 'Sesame Street' for adults. Soon after he had the lead role in 'Pennies from Heaven' and his career took off.

If anything this series showed that the skills of an actor are not just for entertaining but can be educational and inspirational. And if people followed Bob Hoskins characters example and learnt to read, then it must count as one of his most successful jobs in his long career.

On the Move were a series of short programmes made by the BBC to encourage adult literacy. They were shown in the afternoon and hence became popular with school kids who were at home at the time they were broadcast.

Like many children programmes they would state simple words and repeat them and have small dramas featuring popular characters that are making attempts to improve their literacy.

One of them featured Bob Hoskins as truck driver Alf going to these evening classes, being nervous about it but making those initial steps to improve himself later in life. He plays very much the lovable, everyman, one that has problems reading and hopefully his character encouraged others in a similar position.

The show also featured other famous actors as presenters who also talked about their troubles with literacy or numeracy such as a young bearded Martin Shaw who was a presenter alongside Patricia Hayes.