Torchy, the Battery Boy

I've just seen an episode of Torchy for the first time in almost 50 years. Like the other reviewer, Ivan, I remember rather hating Torchy, but we watched it on Sunday afternoons, because it was there. Like a lot of Roberta Leigh productions (especially the later Space Patrol), there was a slightly 'bad-dream' quality about it. The good intentions, and large coating of sugar icing on everything dispelled this effect somewhat (I remember a lot of the action taking place on a star called Topsy Turvy Land - eww), but I'm happy to report that I enjoyed it more at age 52 than I did at age whatever-I-was when I saw it first (I think I was watching reruns, and I was about six or seven...I don't know, it was a long time ago). Kenneth Connor was the only name I recognised on the voice artist credit list - all the others were created by terribly posh ladies for the child voices. Anyway, it was nice to see string puppets for a change after all this tiring CGI stuff. Those were the days, eh?

I watched this as part of a Gerry Anderson marionation marathon. Like many of the works associated with Anderson, this is a kids' puppet show, so expectations should be calibrated to that type of production.

The problem for me is not the puppets (though they are about as creepy as one would expect): the problem is the voice acting. I can listen to Anderson's other shows and enjoy the audio production; the characters and their voices become familiar and relaxing. Not so with "Torchy: The Battery Boy."

In the first instants of "Torchy," I was confronted with a high-pitched squeal yelling "TORCHY! TORCHY!" (The first seconds of the opening theme.) This does not bode well, as many characters have similarly high-pitched and whiny voices. Arguably, it may not be a terrible show, but the grating vocals are enough to render the viewing/listening experience unpleasant.

I would love to provide a more holistic perspective about the qualities of the show, but I just can't get past the voice acting.

I'm out of line writing this.

Why?

I haven't seen the show since (I think) 1958 when I watched it as a preschool-age four year old, and it had a terribly profound effect on me.

Before I go on, I have to say that I was a tremendous fan of Gerry Anderson's work all through my childhood. Four Feather Falls was GREAT. Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray... I watched every episode of every one of them and couldn't get enough. I kinda grew out of it before Joe 90 and I only discovered Captain Scarlet retrospectively - and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've seen occasional reruns of many of these titles and still enjoy them, even though I pretend I'm babysitting my daughter and watching for HER benefit.

But Torchy?

I first saw it because we had relatives over, and their kid, about the same age as me, wanted to watch it - so we did, together. It is the first time in my life I have ever been embarrassed by a children's television programme. I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. I was appalled at the utter stupidity of what I was watching and actually felt insulted that this was being fed to me. I didn't say anything because I was waiting for something good to happen, but it never did. I felt cheated - a totally new experience for me.

I watched the next episode, by myself, in case the horrible taste stopped and it turned out O.K - after all, I enjoyed ALL cartoons and puppet shows, I was a kid. It was my job to enjoy cartoons and puppet shows.

It didn't work. I cringed through the show and didn't watch it again.

I have NO idea why this happened. At the time I loved the Watch With Mother stuff, was enchanted by the gross Andy Pandy's cute Teddy, could have watched Rag Tag & Bobtail for hours and wouldn't dream of turning away from any cartoon being shown, but Torchy just embarrassed me for its patronising childish stupidity. The only show that ever did.

As this was a unique experience and reaction, I am quite keen to see an episode again to see if I can analyse this, and I am only writing this cathartic "revue" because of the strength of the show's impact on me, making a negative impression which has stayed with me for nearly fifty years.

Oh well, back to watching The Clangers.

I must get out more.

-------addendum-------------

It's now more than six years after I wrote my original (rather unpopular, I see :-) ) review. The DVDs are out and at least one other person remembers seeing the show. I got hold of the DVD and watched about half of the first disc.

O.K. the overall concept now looks like it was a fairly good idea hampered by production values, syrupy sentimentality and the thing that I wasn't aware of as a kid, the creepiest looking marionettes that have ever appeared on the televisual receivification apparatus.

It's like this Doctor; I always found dolls a bit icky. Not scary, like clowns, just... yuk, like watching someone drool, or vomit, or eat worms. I wouldn't freak if locked in a room with a load of dolls but I'd be more comfortable with soft toys... or books, or live explosives. Dolls are just slightly unpleasant.

The dolls in Torchy are not just slightly unpleasant - they're bloody horrific. They are the sort of thing that crawl out from under a four year old's bed and stand round the terrified kid in the dark, making threats and gnashing their teeth, mumbling and shuffling but always kept at bay by the blankets over your head and the teddy bear holding you tight and keeping you safe…

Tim Burton does the whole creepy thing wonderfully. He can bring bad-trip weirdness t life and it's entertaining and edgy. The crystal clear rendering gives everything a delirious, hallucinatory reality that is not threatening, just constantly odd. Of course it's completely deliberate. I'd call Burton a genuine surrealist, in the art-movement sense though purist art historians may disagree. He definitely evokes a reality that is rather out of phase with comfortable normality. Other-worldly, dream-like - no, it's more like watching a nightmare but not being caught up in it. The Corpse Bride in synopsis sounds horrible. In the viewing, it's great fun.

Torchy's blurry alternative reality should be more obviously "it's all made up" rather than real - after all one can see the strings and the marionetting is, in comparison to modern work, quite clumsy. The process is always very obvious. despite this, it's as creepy as a plate of earwigs.

In Torchy, I don't think the creepiness is deliberate; I think it's a product of trying to be "cute" and appealing to pre-schoolers and somehow completely missing the mark, mainly through the design of the dolls which are horrific because the inept modeling makes them look hideously deformed rather than caricaturish. Trumpeters' cheeks and staring vacant eyes. Furthermore, the strange adults-squeakily-playing-children voice characterization gives it that patronizing quality I hated as a kid. I never had any problems with Roberta's excellent Space Patrol which wasn't much later as I recall, or, as I stated originally, Anderson's "solo" work. Torchy, however, still puts the weirds up me.

My only niggle-noggle is that the episodes seem to be out of order, I don't care that they were shown in the order listed, in one episode, torchy is on topsy-turvy land, then he is marooned on earth with his rocket still on the planet. Bossy-boots seems to jump from earth to the planet and back again without explanation, perhaps this is just me being picky. I will watch the episodes again and see if I can resolve this issue. but I have some space patrol to watch, which is a far better series and one that I would recommend to people, with hard science based stories. just don't call me Pop

Torchy is a little doll who runs on batteries, with a flashlight (or torch) on his hat, which provides him various magical insights. He spends his days rocketing back and forth from earth, visiting his Geppetto-like creator, and Topsy Turvy Land, a magical world on a nearby star where all of the toys who were abused by their owners reside. He occasionally returns to Topsy Turvy Land with naughty children in tow to teach them lessons about behaving.

One of the greatest strengths of the first series is that it's serialized, with one episode picking up right where the previous one left off. Despite some minor continuity errors, it flows well, picks up new characters along the way, and features genuine character development (which is an oddity in a kiddie show!). For example, the deliciously bratty Bossy Boots gets what's coming to her, and although she backslides into her selfish ways, she tries to be a better person. I began watching the show for yuks, but I gradually found myself charmed by the ongoing saga.

Frankly, I don't know that much about Gerry Anderson (I only saw the Thunderbirds movie once when I was a lad), and I was aware he left for series two, but I was unprepared for the immediate deterioration of quality - and it's not just the puppet work that I'm talking about either (although that's not nearly as good in the second series). I'm assuming that Anderson and company were able to reign in writer Roberta Leigh, but once she was left alone at the helm, the show degraded into a meandering mess.

Series two has no linear continuity, and a couple of the stories seem to be placed between events from the first. That would be okay if they were telling quality stories, but the tales consistently take a backseat to Leigh's songs (which weren't so hot to begin with) and rehashed material. There was a pervading sense of sadness and isolation throughout the first series, but it's amplified tenfold in the second.

And then there's the recycling. Following the obnoxious earworm of a theme song (which even got stuck in Paul McCartney's head during the recording sessions for the Beatles' "Get Back"), series two features a recap of the plot in every episode. This seemed mostly like a way to pad the already-short running time. The first series had one song per show, but the second often has numerous tunes. I eventually lost count of how many times they used the EXACT same footage of Flopsy singing "Topsy Turvy Land" on the beach, but by the fourth time, I was rooting for the tide to drag the shrill little dolly away her away to her death.

I'm guessing that these stories hold up much better on the written page, and I think it's a shame that Leigh's tie-in storybook adaptations have been out of print for more than half a century. The show does have its charms (even at times in series two), but it's a product of a much more innocent era, which isn't apt to have enormous appeal for youngsters of today.