There's Nobody There
Slightly spooky children's drama from Tyne Tees as the Sinclair family finds their new home has an extra resident.
This first episode of Nobody's House sets up the premise of the children's fantasy drama as the Sinclair family move into a Victorian house, complete with a Victorian ghost! The series, made by Tyne Tees and shown on ITV, is part of the plethora of supernatural children's programmes produced in the 1970s, including The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976-78) and Rentaghost (1976-84).
While Nobody's House has its comic moments, it also sets a different tone with its central character of Nobody, the ghost of a Victorian boy (played by Kevin Moreton). As an orphan who died in the workhouse on the site of the Sinclairs' home with no name of his own, Nobody offers an insight into the Victoria era for the Sinclair kids, Tom and Gilly. Moreton had previously played the titular character in the first series of Sam (1973), a Granada period drama about a boy growing up in 1930s Yorkshire.
Also on ITV at this time was the long-running Yorkshire Television series How We Used to Live (1968-87), which presented educational viewing for schools in a dramatised format. Truly ITV had cornered the market in this period by cleverly wrapping up history for children in entertaining formats.
Tags
Kid's TV
Our relationship with the small screen starts early in life, opening our square eyes to a heady mix of drama and comedy; fantasy and fact.
Dedicated children’s programming has been part of the television mix from its earliest years, growing from short intervals “For The Children” after WWII, to a plethora of standalone channels today. The start of the BBC’s long-running “Watch With Mother” series in 1953 set much of the template for pre-school television, blending puppets, song and animation, with the implicit expectation that mum - assumed to be a housewife - would supervise.
Catering for older children, meanwhile, sought to balance the kinds of programmes children want to watch with those their parents want them to see. Eventually a fuller menu of drama, comedy, factual and magazine programmes for children - in other words, versions of 'grown-up' programmes for 'small people' - came to fill the schedules of weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
Sadly, the segregation of children’s television to its own satellite, cable and digital channels has made its much less likely for adults to experience the frequent delights of kids’ TV. But our collection welcomes all ages! (Though please note that some programmes maybe flagged as unsuitable for young children.)
48 videos in this collection
1
2
Diane's Panda Party [28/09/72]
3
Animal Kwackers [09/10/75]
4
Witches' Brew [28/12/72]
5
Origami [09/04/70]
6
Mr. Trimble [21/02/73]
7
Gathercole Bunch
8
The Distant Voice
9
The Challenge
10
Play It Again, Stewpot [25/07/74]
11
Play It Again, Stewpot [05/09/74]
12
A Handful of Songs [27/05/77]
13
Saturday Scene Road Show [11/05/75]
14
Big and Bigger
15
Mickey the Demon Barber
16
Kevin Goes to the Library
17
Ragdolly Anna and the Bacon
18
Britain in the Year 2000
19
Delilah
20
Zzzap! [19/02/93]
21
Granny's Kitchen [26/05/77]
22
Heavens Above [23/02/81]
23
Moving In
24
Nature Trail [16/05/83]
25
Our Show [29/10/77]
26
Peter Ustinov Tells Stories from Hans Andersen
27
Quest of Eagles Episode 1 Sailor
28
Sunny Side Up [28/04/82]
29
The Children's Royal Variety Performance
30
There's Nobody There
31
Think Tank [18/08/81]
32
Two Good Turns
33
William Clears the Slums
34
Gus Hunnybun
35
One Day in the Life of Television
36
Gus Honeybun Animation
37
Gus Honeybun around Plymouth
38
Modern Music
39
Calendar Kids
40
Sus
41
School Around the Corner
42
Tots TV [19/03/93]
43
The Raggy Dolls [10/11/92]
44
Skoosh Summer Special [14/07/98]
45
Zig Zag (Prog 11)
46
Stookie [15/09/85]
47
Brushes
48