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Jamie and the Magic Torch

JAMIE (OSMONDS blow-wave and flared turn-ups) and his dog, Wordsworth (Norfolk accent and woolly hat) are tucked in one peaceful suburban night by their doting, silhouetted mother. The door closes. Silence. Then- thrusting aside the bedclothes, Jamie grabs his trusty torch and shines it onto the floor, whereupon the circle of light dissolves away to reveal a psychedelic helter-skelter which they jump down, and eventually emerge from via a hole in a tree. The theme song helpfully informs us that this is “Cuckooland”. Mayhem ensues with a variety of Yellow Submarine-style (only better) characters, like midget scientist Mr. Boo (in land-based submarine), one-wheeled police officer Gotcha, a Scottish rabbit with one enormous foot, and loads more from the menagerie-filled minds of Cosgrove-Hall.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Ste

    April 27, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    As kids we would recreate the opening titles by jumping off a fence (thus bypassing the need for an infinitely long helter skelter) onto a dartboard. The dartboard was a wound-cardboard-with-a-wooden-bull affair and didn’t last very long under the stress.

  2. Joanne Gray

    February 18, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    I often wondered if he ever had difficulty getting up for school the next morning after spending all night every night in Cuckoo Land.

    • Tom Ronson

      March 28, 2022 at 1:35 am

      He was only in Cuckoo Land for about ten minutes before the helter-skelter-concealing tree turned up again and beckoned him home.

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