Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Classic children's books revived to enthral today's young generation

BBC turns to enduring appeal of old favourites and family stories from the 1960s and 70s

Topsy and Tim
Joshua Lester and Jocelyn Macnab as Tim and Topsy in the new CBeebies drama series. They are looking after a friend’s guinea pigs but they escape. Photograph: BBC/Darrall Macqueen Ltd

Characters who delighted millions of children through books in the 1960s and 70s are being brought back to life for a new generation of TV viewers.

Topsy and Tim, the five-year-old twins who featured in a series of books first published more than 50 years ago, are the latest pair to be updated to appeal to 21st-century pre-schoolers. They will star in a new drama series on CBeebies, which starts on Monday.

The BBC's decision to back a series of 60 15-minute dramas, starring child actors rather than cartoon portrayals, is proof that classic, simple stories told from a child's perspective can have enduring appeal and also win the approval of parents who may have grown up with them.

The revival of another set of stories from the past dovetails with decisions by Channel 5 and CBeebies respectively to bring back the Wombles and the Clangers, and follows the success of the "reimagining" of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit, first published in 1902, also on CBeebies.

Inspired by the mundane stuff of a young child's life, the first episodes of Topsy and Tim include Dad making special sandwiches – cheese, lettuce, peanut butter; washing the car together; and looking after a friend's guinea pigs, only for them to escape. It ends next year with the key rite of passage – starting school.
Jean Adamson, 86, who invented and illustrated Topsy and Tim with her husband, Gareth, said: "Childhood has not changed significantly over the past 50 years. The books reflect the things very young children do, grubbing about in the garden, squabbling." She said the stories were based on observation, and then on their three young children in the 1960s. "I think we would have run out of ideas … then the children began to arrive."
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