Monday, September 15, 2008

Turn, karmic wheel

I think that if I could choose one perfect mode of existence, I would be Rag Dolly Anna. Now I know this is a controversial choice, I am a grown man and people are going to be crossing the road to avoid me after this. But watch this instructional film and rejoin me on the other side.



Rag Dolly Anna has a wicked time, all the time. She is only small but her concerns are few. She gets to:

1. See a fresh steam roller
2. Chillax with a nice bunny
3. Talk to a friend on the telephone
4. Push a little wheelbarrow (friends of mine know my love of the barrow)
5. Hang out with lovely old Pat Coombes
6. Have, not to put too fine a point on it, "a bunch of paper roses in her big straw hat".

Maybe the fact that someone drove into my car on Saturday causing a lovely crumpling effect, combined with the knowledge that my roof is leaking, has caused me to revert to an infantile state. I think someone had better send help, and fast.

18 comments:

Joel said...

As a child I enjoyed this show, despite being mortally afraid Ragdolly Anna would get stepped on while venturing out into the harsh human world. Or run over by Brum.

John A said...

Yes! It is the homespun fragility of R.D.A that draws us to her. Under the kindly gaze of Pat Coombes, she couldn't come to too much harm. Pat was a pro of the old school, who like most elderly British performers, made her final, curtain-call appearance on 'Doctors'.

Jon said...

Were you IN your car at the time of the crumpling? Obviously you are well enough to type, but still: WHOA

John A said...

Jon: no. It was parked. But it was hit by a car of the same make and model, which I thought was pretty good.

Unknown said...

It's good that cars crumple. The old ones didn't and people would die from 20 mph (30 km/hr i guess) collisions. And praise jah you weren't in it.

V^e said...

That "rag doll" show is easily the most frightening thing I've ever seen.

Most pleased that my favorite cartoonin' man is in one piece, despite the current crumpliness of the vehicle.

freeboprich said...

Let us just remember that some things aren't generally revered on a national level for good reason, and are best forgotten. I can't say I was ever aware of it but it has brought to mind children's programming of a similar calibre which even as a child I realised was pretty dire.

PS: sorry about your car :(

John A said...

Valry, you must be the most timid person in creation if that unnerves you. Please promise me you will never watch the news, it would upset you very badly. I am sending you a stripy mug with a chick in it, look after the chick at all costs, it is a cruel world.

Freebo Prich, I think when you consider the tiny budgets available to those kids' shows, they were actually very charming and inventive. But I am a terrible sentimentalist who spent his childhood years as scared of the future as Valry is of Rag Dolly Anna (look after that chick Valry!)

John A said...

I bet answers like that are better than Warren Ellis gives on his blog.

Bad Andy said...

Ah - she wouldn't even make it into the Raggy Dolls.

Unknown said...

Warren Ellis is over-rated.

(Sorry Warren, but you are. You'll just have to console yourself with your piles of money and adoring legions of fans.)

Unknown said...

Seeing this threw me back, good lord, 26 years or so to an incident at the school gates where Simon Merryfield sang the RDA theme with all the lyrics replaced with the words 'Ragdolly Anna's doing a fart'. I remember thinking at the time how deeply unfunny (and frankly disrespectful) this was - thank god Pat Coombes never heard it.

I see from Google that he is now a systems engineer in Kingston-upon-Thames...his current views on RDA not specified.

David Streever said...

Dear John A,
you don't need help. You need a medal.

Welcome to this side of the road. Let's never go back.

V^e said...

Live-action children's shows are responsible for 97% of my nightmares before age 5.

http://lindahawkins.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/fairchilde171.jpg

Mr. Roger's puppets, anyone? Seriously, could that thing be any scarier?!

If I had a doll like Rag Dolly Anna I'd have set her aflame in hopes of eradicating her of her evil spirit. It's what Esther would do.

For the record, fowl scare me. Those beady eyes and pointy beaks are unnatural!

freeboprich said...

Oh don't get me wrong, it's nothing to do with the budgets, I'm all for shoestring genius when it's done properly. It's more the use of barely fleshed out concepts which as far as I could see were used to bulk out the big gaps between episodes of "Trap Door," "Danger Mouse," "Count Duckula," "Round the Twist" and "Maid Marian & Her Merry Men."
For some reason I was rather taken by "The Tomorrow People" revamp and "Kappatoo" but I'm well aware now that they were pieces of tripe with a bigger budget.

Sparkles F said...

Sorry about your car. People are dumb.
But! You did the unthinkable and cheered me up, which is near impossible now that my husband is in Afghanistan. Thanks for making me giggle. (At RDA, not your poor car.)

Roman said...

How are car and, perhaps more importantly, roof faring?

Good thing it rains so infrequently in England, har har.

John A said...

I threw a tarp over my house and drove my car into the sea. It was the only way.