TV Cream

TV: S is for...

Sam on Boff’s Island

WEIRD, HALF-REMEMBERED educational oddity. Sam was a human, trapped on an island with the Boffs (little human-style creatures). They had an inventor one and various other ones, who did factory-type things with words and letters. Then there were these birds called say-birds, each with a different letter printed on them, who used to say the letter that was on them as they flew and the letters would fall to the ground, then the Boffs would pick up the letters and put them into the words they made in the factory. Whole thing starred TONY “FAT TULIP” ROBINSON, wearing a polo-neck and gold medallion or patterned neckachief. Every episode he would be transported to Boff’s Island in a daydream, usually after he contemplated word misunderstandings. One episode he was in a noisy restaurant, orders some nice ham and mustard, the waitress mishears him and comes back with some rice, jam and custard. The Boffs were knitted puppets with buttons for eyes; Grandma Boff was a haggard old witch who looked like a knitted Ena Sharples. Shop Boff owned a shop and a load of say-birds. Ask him for some butter and the B say-bird would say B into the shop Boff machine and out the other end would come some butter. Shop Boff also sold the Boff Island newspaper, the Hanky-Panky Fantastico. Front page news stories included: The Cat Sat On A Mat. There was a neighbouring island to Boff which has some pink scary creatures called the Gurglers or something. They didn’t speak but gurgled quite a lot.

Click to comment

0 Comments

  1. Neil Stacey

    August 30, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I think Sam (Sampson) used a dessert spoon as a microphone! That’s my only memory of this programe.

  2. George White

    September 15, 2016 at 8:47 pm

    Sampson no relation to Zombie Flesh Eaters’ James Sampson – not the James Sampson who knows Chris Notarile and director of Pigskins (not the Aussie short of the same name or the film by my friend Jake Hammond, with Pablo GOnzalez, Isabella Groff and Isadora Leiva)?

    Didn’t Sir Tone do a pilot around this time – the Boys and Mrs. B with Thora Hird and Swiftnick off Dick Turpin?

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top