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Michael Cole

Michael Cole

Creator

Biography

Michael Cole was a British writer. He created a number of children's programmes from the 1970s to the 1990s, including Alphabet Castle, Heads and Tails and Ragtime, for which he won a Society of Film and Television Award (later known as a BAFTA) for Best Children's Programme. Together with his wife Joanne Cole, he created Bod, originally published as four books in 1965 and made into a TV show in the 1970s, as well as Fingerbobs and Gran.

Known For

Gran
6.0

Gran is a children's stop motion animation television series narrated by Patricia Hayes and directed by Ivor Wood. There were only two main characters, namely Gran and her grandson, Jim. The programme was made by Woodland Animations and was written by Michael and Joanne Cole. Ivor Wood created thirteen five-minute episodes in 1982. The series was broadcast on the BBC between 17 February 1983 and 12 May 1983, and was repeated in both 1986 and 1992. A children's book based on the series was also released in 1983. The shorts were also shown in the U.S. as part of the Nickelodeon series Eureeka's Castle. Despite moderate popularity with young audiences in the mid-1980s, the series has not been seen on UK television since being repeated in 1992, and no further episodes were made. Series 1 was released on Region 2 DVD in the U.K. on 7 March 2005 but has since been deleted.

Gran

1982Series
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8.0

Chock-A-Block was a BBC children's television programme, first shown in 1981 and repeated through to 1989 and shown as part of the children's programme cycle See-Saw. "Chock-A-Block" was an extremely large yellow computer, modelled to resemble a mainframe of the time; it filled the entire studio and provided the entire backdrop for the show. The presenter of the show supposedly played the part of a technician maintaining the computer; there were two presenters, Fred Harris and Carol Leader, but only one appeared in each episode. At the start of the show, the presenter would drive around the studio towards the machine in a small yellow electric car, before saying the catchphrase "Chock-A-Bloke, checking in!". The presenter would then use the machine to find out about a particular topic. The name "chock-a-block" was supposedly derived from the machine's ability to read data from "blocks" - which were just that, physical blocks painted different colours. A typical show would include dialogue from the presenter, a brief clip played on Chock-a-block's video screen, and the presenter recording a song on Chock-a-block's audio recorder.

Chock-A-Block

Series