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Zokko

SATURDAY MORNING cartoon linking device featuring a talking pinball machine of that name which played pinball, showed film clips and cartoons, including the home grown (and barely animated) space serial Skayne, Bevis and Sabor. The Radiophonic Workshop supplied the voice, Janet Ellis’ dad made the pinball machine, and ALI BONGO provided the magic salt. Either inspired, or insipid.

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  1. Jo Pacey

    February 14, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    Ah, yes Zokko !! I’d forgotten!! All I remember is it used to go ‘Zokko…Score 40 (or whatever)… Speed Ride and then you would be treated to a very fast ride on a roller coaster, aeroplane or similar. What else did it do? Who can remember??

  2. harry hughes

    July 29, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    I thought it was a figment of my imagination until now. Thank you. Can anybody help me with a programme called Mickey Finn ? I remember the theme tune but when I sing it to people of my own age they start to find other subjects to talk about or turn away from me

  3. Simon Tonkin

    February 8, 2012 at 12:42 pm


    harry hughes:

    I thought it was a figment of my imagination until now. Thank you. Can anybody help me with a programme called Mickey Finn ? I remember the theme tune but when I sing it to people of my own age they start to find other subjects to talk about or turn away from me

    That wouldn’t be ‘Mickey Dunne’ by any chance?

  4. Malcolm Lucas

    September 24, 2013 at 9:07 pm

    I remember Zokko quite well – the camera used to focus in on the score indicator. For some reason I recall seeing a “video” of Cat Stevens “Matthew & son” even though this was a hit in 1967, with a clip of people stood on a railway station platform. The drama cartoons or inanimate comic strips ( a better description) I recall are Skane (sci-fi hero) and Susan Starr of the Circus. Been looking on Youtube for some clips bu to no avail. Don’t think that many episodes were made. One of those short-lived things similar to “Score With The Scaffold” and “Hope and Keen’s Crazy Bus” – anyone remember those?? The latter used an old Glasgow Corporation (?) bus I recall.

  5. Mickey Toffee

    October 25, 2013 at 8:52 pm

    This programme included some really old, pre-TransLux editions of “Felix the Cat” (without sound).

  6. Tom Newton

    November 17, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    I remember Zokko. Was “Pied Piper’s House” on there? He lived in a tree house and sang, before introducing other parts of the show, like “Down On Animal Farm” with Kookie The Kitten. Or is my memory going?

  7. John Doidge

    February 28, 2014 at 9:30 am

    I have trawled the internet for years for any references to Zokko . At last – it wasn’t a figment of my old black and white imagination either . I thought it was on ITV just before World of Sport . If it was BBC must have been just before Grandstand . I loved it . His electronic voice was great . Skayne and speed ride were personal favourites .

  8. Paul Hughes

    April 21, 2014 at 3:01 am

    I Remember Zokko, I’m sure it always used to finish with the phrase ‘Zokko, score ten, game over’
    Didn’t it also feature Ali Bongo the magician and introduce cartoons like Marine Boy or The Arabian Nights (‘Size of a cucumber. – so shall it be’). No, wait, that could have been ‘the Banana Splits’. Whacky Races anyone?

  9. Boogs

    May 4, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    I always remember “score 16 serial” and then it would continue a story from previous weeks.

  10. ray ward

    June 22, 2014 at 8:00 am

    I remember Zokko well!! I have asked friends of a similar age and no one remembered it!!

    the them music to Felix went thus:-

    Felix the cat,
    the wonderful, wonderful cat,
    whenever he is in a fix he reaches into his bag of tricks!!

  11. Lee James Turnock

    August 14, 2014 at 6:43 pm

    Damningly described by Victor Lewis-Smith as “very poor”.

  12. Barney

    October 17, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    Tom Newton– Pied Pipers House was a seperate program, friday evenings IIRC. Think it may have been an American thing. Zokko! Would love to see some of this, but none out there.

  13. Andy

    October 28, 2014 at 10:36 am

    Glad some other folks recall this. I’m not going insane! I seem to remember the American pied piper guy being on Zokko, but wasn’t it called “Mr Piper”? He’d sing and introduce the various bits of the show. Skane, sci-fi hero, had forgotten that. Speed Ride was great. Felix the cat, yes, recall he was on there, old black and white footage. I used to watch this as I recall on a Saturday morning at my gran’s house, with a glass of orange pop and a Wagon Wheel biscuit. About 1969? Them were t’ days.

  14. Chubworth

    November 7, 2014 at 7:32 am

    I was 3 when this was on so must be one of my earliest memories. The beginning used to say something like “This is Zokko!” And me and my Dad used to shout at the TV “We know!” This is hilarious when you’re 3 and think that your dad is hilarious too.

  15. Redhairkid

    January 11, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    It was indeed called ‘Mr Piper’, Andy. But he was Canadian, not American.

  16. Peter Coutts

    March 1, 2015 at 8:37 pm

    I remember Zokko ,Skayne and the theme tune for the show which was the sort of catchy thing that drove you mad.
    After Zokko a very similar show with an identical format replaced it for a short run. This time we had a spaceship computer replacing the pinball machine. ‘Outta Space’ had a similarly catchy tune and its own ‘Bleep and Booster’ non animation style serial.

  17. Astronut

    May 20, 2015 at 11:06 am

    Score 15. Tramp-o-line.

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