We watched this with fascination. There was no talking, only some sign language for the deaf.
The highlight was the Gallery, a look at the best paintings that kids had sent in that week, accompanied by some addictive soft glockenspiel music. It was always my ambition to get a painting on and see my name on the telly, but I was too afraid to send one in. I used to wonder about all the kids who didn't worry about sending in total rubbish. Maybe I was different.
You never quite knew what was going to happen on this programme. There'd be some animation, and a regular sketch featuring a rigid man in a white lab coat and a Hitler hairstyle, called the Professor, who used to cause general chaos by carrying ladders about. It was all silent and surreal. We watched open-mouthed, not quite knowing what to make of it.
Tony was a genial and benign white-haired fellow, perhaps a bit fussy in the way he dealt with his pots and utensils, but we liked him all the same. We had complete confidence in whatever he started to do, with whatever bizarre materials and however incomprehensible it seemed at first, we knew he would end up with something ingenious.
It was an ingenious programme, that instilled a sense of freedom and originality in us. Good to grow up with.
