Review of Stories From Trumpton

Introduction

This disk is a wallow in nostalgia for those of us who were rugrats in the late 1960`s. Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley were cornerstones of BBC Childrens` programming throughout the 1970`s, and hark back to a gentle era when a "shout" for Trumpton Fire Brigade was more likely to involve rescuing a cat than extinguishing a torched Sierra on the council estate. This is the world of Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb, of gentle songs about window cleaners and printers and the avuncular narration of the great Brian Cant.

Video

It is unfortunate that this series has not survived the passage of time as well as more mature series of the same vintage. The master quality of the eight episodes on this disk can be best described as appalling in the spent-eighteen-years-stored-under-somebody`s-bed sense. The prints show terrible wear and tear, with a great deal of scratches and dirt visible. The image is grainy and distinctly soft-focussed, but that may be inherent from the original time of production. Most worrying is the print weave and crawl obvious on some of the episodes, manifested as a wobbling of the image as if projected on a sheet flapping in the breeze.

Audio

As with the video, no attempt has been made to improve the sound quality of the disk. Sound is in glorious Mono, but anything tricky would detract from the whole "Watch With Mother" experience.

Features

Absolutely nothing. Not even subtitles. There is an animated menu but that only gives episode access. There are no chapter stops, only separate titles on the disk, so you might as well holster your remote while playing this one.

Conclusion

The adventures of Trumpton Fire Brigade, the Mayor, Miss Lovelace, Mrs Cobbit and Chippy Minton might be a little genteel for today`s Tweenie-worshippers, but the strength of this disk is as a nostalgia item. It is a pity Telstar have not made an effort to produce a better disk. The quality of this disk borders on the unacceptable, but that is largely due to the condition of the source material. It is a shame that so much material aimed at children has been handled with such a cavalier attitude over the years. Other programmes have survived the vagaries of storage - witness The Avengers, Dad`s Army or the original Randall and Hopkirk - but so much "Childrens`" Television is either lost, in terrible condition or simply will never been seen again.