Review of Dream Street: Series 3

Introduction

If you look back through my review history, you`ll spot a hell of a lot of TV shows for the younger viewer in there. But if you look closely, you`ll spot that they are all of a certain vintage, and perhaps a little bizarre. Take the example of Button Moon, where the hero is made from a bottle, some wellies, some spoons and some bowls, and is actually an intergalactic astronaut. Or the British Gas owned Willo the Wisp, featuring the brilliance of Kenneth Williams.

I`m firmly of the belief that they don`t make them like they used to, so let`s see if Dream Street is any different. First broadcast in 1999, it appears on CITV (ITV for kids). The show follows the adventures of Magic Time Buddy and his friends, Daisy the police car, Jack Hammer the rapping pneumatic drill, Hot Rodney, the racing mad hot rod and many others. According to PR blurb it "encourages life and communication skills in young children" and apparrently "every episode contains a moral nugget that the young audience can identify with".

Video

A standard full-frame transfer, which shows the mixture of model work, animatronics and graphics off to good effect. The main characters are all vehicles or vehicle related, so there`s a police car, a pick-up truck, some cones, some "sleeping policemen" and some talking traffic lights. And that`s about all there is to it.

Audio

A DD2.0 stereo soundtrack which is all fine and dandy. Everything is clear and audbile, and aside from that it`s pretty unremarkable. The key to a great TV series for the younger generation is to have a great narrator who`ll be remembered for years to come. Willo the Wisp, had Kenneth Williams, Bod had John Le Mesurier, Henry`s Cat had Bob Godfrey, whilst both both Dangermouse and Count Duckula featured David Jason.

So who do we get here? Russell Roberts, better known as Russ Abbot, bastion of low quality 1980s Saturday evening entertainment Russ Abbot`s Madhouse. I don`t think I need to say anything else!

Features

There are a small selection of extras. "Character Profiles" are just brief sentences about each character, there are a couple of quizzes which feature clips from the show, and then there`s Karaoke, which allows you to sing along with the theme tune. There`s also some DVD ROM content which allows you to print out drawings for colouring in.

Conclusion

They don`t make them like they used to. That could be seen as a good thing in some ways, as the animation and model work on show here is far superior to older shows like Chorlton and the Wheelies. But those older shows had bags of character, and their lack of quality in the technical areas just adds to their charm. They also had great narrators, as I`ve already mentioned. Why not pull Brian Cant out of storage instead of using Russ Abbot?

Anyway, if your youngsters like this show then this DVD is fine for them as it`s reasonably priced and should keep them entertained for an hour or two. And when that`s over you can always just buy more of this stuff from the "Dream Street Market" on the web, where home gifts, stationery, books, comics, clothes, footwear, confectionary, toys and accessories are also available.

It`s not about entertaining TV any more is it? It`s all about marketing and shifting as many "related" products as you can. In protest, I recommend that you go and buy Fingerbobs instead, as a reminder of a forgotten era, when TV shows for children were about education and entertainment, not huge marketing and merchandising campaigns, and seeing how many stupid number one singles you can wring out of your characters before confining them to the scrap heap and getting children hooked on the next fad.