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Sunday Gang, The

RAKISH RELIGIOUS saccharine for kids, taking advantage of the Sunday morning fallow period to sow some do-gooding public service oats. Taking its cue from winsomely clean-cut New Testament musical hit GODSPELL, the toothsome gang comprised four young people: handsome, slightly serious leader JD, stereotyped bespectacled boffin “Boff” (given to whimsical outbursts like “splice me sprinkled sprockets!”) and two girls, self-confessed “slow” country bumpkin Dodo and chirpy cockney Teena (good old TINA HEATH, who naffed off after a couple of years to be replaced by an Alison).

Dressed in dungarees and Burton’s finest co-ordinated leisurewear, as was the style at the time, the gang would chat to each other in best 1970s youth worker style before sitting down at a table whilst one would read a Bible story (only they didn’t call it ‘the Bible’, they called it ‘the Big Bumper Storybook’) and the others joined in with specious comments like “…and didn’t anyone help the poor man, or was it just the Samaritan?”. Then they’d chat, slightly over-excitedly, directly to the viewer. (“We believe that this is God’s world!”) Suddenly, what seemed a bit of aimless yet welcome Sunday morning fluff took on a slightly uncomfortable air. Then, as if to dispell the creepy evangelical atmosphere, they’d argue with a giant white mouse puppet called Mackintosh Mouse that lived in a cage and spoke in the broadest Scots accent ever heard on television, while tending his ‘haggis patch’. There was also God-bothering vox-pop segment Bran Tub and God-bothering guest interview slot Halfway House (guests of the calibre of BOB WILSON, no less) and a ‘kung-fu cuckoo clock’ for extra whimsy points.

Then Boff would activate his special organ (as in keyboard) which would play the closing music. Over-ebullient opening signature tune ran: “Knocking on doors, opening windows/Up and down and round/[Punch air with cheery Christian defiance over next line] WE! ARE! The Sunday Gang!/There’s a lot to be found around/Taking a trip through God’s creation/Finding out the way [Cue hilarious cartoon of anthropomorphic signpost with ‘WAY’ written on it]/WE! ARE! The Sunday Gang!/Why don’t you come with us todaaaay…”

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Jesus H. Christ

    January 17, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    Mention of this programme makes one of the songs spring to mind, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego”. It was a calypso based around the furnace-defying trio off of the Old Testament and is ingrained in a few memories despite never being heard once in the past thirty years or so.

    Brilliant to see a pic of that organ again (ooer).

  2. Alan Bourke

    January 17, 2010 at 8:33 pm

    So THAT’S where I know that song from! I’d even forgotten who the titular flameproof trio were so had to look it up recently.

    Ah, me.

  3. MartS

    January 18, 2010 at 7:59 am

    Teena of course ‘naffed off’ to present Blue Peter.
    The aforementioned Ms Heath, was my real first tv presenter crush – I’d totally forgotten about her, until I saw that screengrab, up the page a little. Brings memories of being a 5 year old all back again..!

  4. Applemask

    January 20, 2010 at 11:44 pm

    Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo
    Were condemned to be thrown in the furnace
    Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo
    They had no fear, no fear at all

    It was Igziabeher, yim mas gan
    It was God, let him be praised
    It was Igziabeher, yim mas gan
    It was God, let him be praised

    …that is in my head for so long now. Course it’s the awesome Abysinnians roots reggae version, so not a problem.

  5. dom

    January 27, 2010 at 12:04 am

    I remember a different version of the theme song that was sang in school playgrounds ( at least at the Catholic school I went to ) that went something like…”Knocking down doors, smashing up windows, blowing up houses & cars, WE ARE The I.R.A…” etc.

  6. Tom Ronson

    October 27, 2022 at 12:07 am

    My God, this was a VERY early example of me showing a level of cynicism that belied my tender years and had me thinking ‘Why is this allowed on television at all?’ As I remember, it was a disastrous attempt at combining a sort of Blue Peter magazine format with Play Away antics and an unsubtle Christian message, further hobbled by charmless nerk presenters, an ugly studio set, rotten animation, oddball guests, and iffy musical interludes, all shot through with a half-arsed ‘Will this do?’ attitude. I’ve no doubt there are episodes knocking around on YouTube but life’s too short, to be quite honest with you. And I say that as someone who wouldn’t mind seeing Clock On (at the Laughter Factory) again, even though it’d probably seem pretty rotten to my now-forty-eight-year-old eyes…

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