We're Witches Of Halloween... Woo-Ooo!

October 31, 2014 8:37 AM

Words And Pictures was a long running BBC television series created to help small children to learn to read and write. From back in an era when most broadcasting seemed designed to utterly terrify its younger viewers here is the Halloween episode that managed to traumatized several generations as it was repeated year-in year-out (if not on television, then on scratchy VHS recordings in school classrooms) seemingly forever.

You may have already seen some of Words And Pictures as, ironically, an old video of an episode is used to educated kids in post-apocalyptic Britain in the imfamous trauma-thon Threads.

posted by fearfulsymmetry (18 comments total)

Mercy on us!
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:58 AM on October 31, 2014

Picture box was traumatic for similar-aged kids week in, week out!
posted by davemee at 9:30 AM on October 31, 2014

I love the Witches of Halloween song, I still sing it at home. And not just at Halloween either. Thanks for posting this, its been passed to my SO for informational purposes.

For the record the spooky bloke who presents this is spooky in every episode.
posted by biffa at 9:43 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

This episode was too early for my generation. We had the Sophie Aldred era of Words and Pictures which, as I remember, was far less traumatic.

However, I was very afraid of Wordy from Look and Read.
posted by dumdidumdum at 10:15 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Aaargh! I did not like Wordy one bit.
posted by Artw at 11:25 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

However, I was very afraid of Wordy from Look and Read.

OMG. I was just coming here to ask what that weird creepy typewritery character I vaguely remember was. Here's some Wordy.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:26 AM on October 31, 2014

Kill it! Kill it with fire! Burn down YouTube! burn down language - it has become INFECTED!!! Cfsggjeeghdefhiii! ~<>**!!!!
posted by Artw at 11:29 AM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

/Listening to the theme from The Book Tower to calm down.
posted by Artw at 11:33 AM on October 31, 2014

Picture Box! This is nostalgia crack for 70s britkids. Anglia; weekends, LWT.

Why Don't You or Magpie?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:35 AM on October 31, 2014

Opened in new tab, skipped ahead at random, landed on a finger slowly pointing out the words "SHE CUT OUT A MOUTH", closed tab. Everything went great.
posted by penduluum at 11:54 AM on October 31, 2014 [4 favorites]

Surely Blue Peter or Magpie? They were in opposition in terms of programming and I would also argue were significant attitudinal/class markers, as with Swap Shop vs Tiswas.

My SO, middle-middle, maybe even upper-middle was not allowed to watch kids ITV, only BBC.
posted by biffa at 1:14 PM on October 31, 2014

My SO, middle-middle, maybe even upper-middle was not allowed to watch kids ITV, only BBC.

I don't think anyone I ever knew was flat-out banned from watching certain channels but there were definitely BBC or ITV families
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:35 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Watching commercial telly was always a bit of a hold your nose moment in our house, though that eased off a lot once Channel 4 was invented.

Of course we didn't listen to BBC Radio 1 except John Peel either.
posted by Artw at 1:55 PM on October 31, 2014

See also The Boy from Space*

*Don't.**

**No Really, don't
posted by fullerine at 6:30 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

This was in my head. I had no conscious recollection of it at all - the name of the show, the theme music, nothing - but within half a second of clicking play it's all there as though I'd watched it yesterday. Chemicals, neurons, synapses, just sitting there, storing this, like an old floppy that's fallen behind a shelf in the garage.

Why can't my brain spontaneously remember anything good with this level of fidelity?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:11 PM on October 31, 2014

> I don't think anyone I ever knew was flat-out banned from watching certain channels

We were advised that ITV (well, STV) was “common”, and we had to stop watching it if detected.

Of course, physics banned us from watching BBC 2 until we bought a 625 line colour set sometime in 1976 …
posted by scruss at 9:15 PM on October 31, 2014

(Does anybody know how they animated the character that appears a minute or so into this episode (and was in all the others of that era)? Can't remember his name. Drove me nuts as a kid. Is he a puppet? One of those Javanese cut outs? Witchcraft? HOW DOES HE WORK GODDAMMIT)
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:17 PM on October 31, 2014

Traditional pen-and-ink animation superimposed over the camera shot by glorious 80s chroma-key effects, would be my guess. Notice (a) Charlie's always fully in the foreground, never partially obscured by anything in the shot, and (b) he never interacts with anything physical in the shot, other than being positioned suitably to stand on things.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:09 PM on November 2, 2014