Find the Doctor in this 1970s kids show

[23skidoo]

When I was a little kid, the CBC in Canada used to play the BBC series Vision On. It was a kids program that appealed to everyone though it was primarily produced for the hearing impaired. I remember watching it a lot because I think they played it just before Friendly Giant or something like that. I was into the stop-motion animation they used.

It's best remembered today as being an early TV credit for a fellow named Sylvester McCoy.

Youtube has the opening credits for the series, dating back to the early 1970s. A familiar face pops up around the 20-second mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCYKGei2fyY

Here's a later opening credits sequence (I remember this one so this must have been from the time when I watched it in Canada). Near the end Mr. McCoy comes bounding down the stairs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_xVnh8Z_NE

Alex

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, Sylvester McCoy was in quite a few kids programmes back in the 70s and 80s.

I think I remember seeing his "hammering a nail up his nose" trick long before he was cast as the Doctor. I'm struggling to remember which show that was, though. He reprised it for The Secret Policeman's Ball.

 

[StCoop]

And of course "Vision On" was created by legendary (in the UK anyway) kid's TV Producer Clive Doig, who in his earlier days worked on 'Doctor Who' and talks about it on "The Sensorites" DVD.

It's a small world.

 

[OmahaStar]

Huh. Didn't recognize him at all in those clips. The 70s were kind to no one. lol

 

[StCoop]

Huh. Didn't recognize him at all in those clips. The 70s were kind to no one. lol

Not DW related but do a search for Jeremy Irons / Play Away...

(Actually just realised it is kind of since Brian Cant was in "The Dominators".)

 

[23skidoo]

Yeah, Sylvester McCoy was in quite a few kids programmes back in the 70s and 80s.

I think I remember seeing his "hammering a nail up his nose" trick long before he was cast as the Doctor. I'm struggling to remember which show that was, though. He reprised it for The Secret Policeman's Ball.

I actually saw that scene for the first time not long after reading that he'd been cast as the Seventh Doctor. Needless to say it made a weird impression.

But his big "skeleton" has to be "Three Kinds of Heat", a 1987 B-movie in which he plays a gangster. But that's not all. Mary Tamm is in the movie too, playing a moll type, and McCoy kills her off! I believe Trevor Martin (who played the Doctor in the Seven Keys to Doomsday play) is also in there.

Alex

 

[StCoop]

And at the end of the year he'll be rolling his Rrrrrrs in Imax 3D for all the world to see!

(I still wish he'd got to play Bilbo, though.)

 

[Captaindemotion]

No offence to Sly, but for me, the highlight of those clips was seeing the late, great Tony Hart. What a wonderful kids' presenter he was.

 

[Davros]

At least it wasn't Worzel Gummage

 

[Haggis and tatties]

That clip took me right back to 4pm, school's finished, and you plonk yourself in front of the tv waiting for your dinner watching, Vision on, Black Beauty, How, The lost islands, animal magic and clapper board..........great days.

 

[arthur2sheds]

That clip took me right back to 4pm, school's finished, and you plonk yourself in front of the tv waiting for your dinner watching, Vision on, Black Beauty, How, The lost islands, animal magic and clapper board..........great days.

A man after my own heart! I STILL miss VISION ON and ANIMAL MAGIC.

 

[23skidoo]

That clip took me right back to 4pm, school's finished, and you plonk yourself in front of the tv waiting for your dinner watching, Vision on, Black Beauty, How, The lost islands, animal magic and clapper board..........great days.

I have similar fond memories. The show titles are different because I'm Canada (so substitute titles like Coming Up Rosie, Batman, Star Trek and assorted sitcom reruns like Bewitched) but the sentiment is the same.

I don't know what the current format is for UK TV on weekday afternoons, but I'll never forgive the broadcasters here from basically turning over the 4-6 PM hours to news programming, talk shows and maybe a soap opera. Kids today are missing out on one of the simple pleasures in life. Though I guess if they really want to see a Bewitched rerun they just have to fire up the iPad. But it's not the same...

Alex

 

[Timofnine]

That clip was kind of trippy... lol