This claim was probably a little over the top. Yes, the games did appear to be more three dimensional, but only because they worked in a similar way to one of those Viewmaster toys. You looked down two eyepieces so each eye saw a slightly different view of the same image. This made your brain see the image pop into three dimensions.

Sounds good, but given that these games were still limited to only being able to display the graphical images in fixed positions you weren’t going to get smooth movement or animation, and the games were limited to the standard fodder of space invader clones and driving games where you could be in one of three different lanes and all you had to do was switch lanes to dodge oncoming cars.

The games were also not all that good for your eyes or your posture! The game screen was only visible if you had a fairly strong light source coming in through the frosted plastic on the top of the unit, and of course you had to hold the thing up to your eyes constantly in order to play it, so aching arms quickly ensued.

That said, at the time none of that mattered to me and I was deeply envious of anybody who had one of these games, as it made my Grandstand Munchman look dull and boring…

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These days there’s also Scampi, another little bear who I think is Sooty’s cousin, but I don’t remember him from my childhood, so sorry Scampi fans, you can’t choose him on this survey. Quite why he’s named after seafood I don’t know…

The show was based in the world of motorcycle trials, which is where riders take their bikes over an assortment of obstacles, trying to do so as fast as possible and without incurring penalties by knocking over items or putting their foot on the floor. It was quite amazing what these guys could do on their bikes, including driving over the tops of cars, the infamous bunny hop over a plank of wood or negotiating a tight circle of logs without knocking any of them down.

Of course while we all marvelled when someone got around the entire course without a single fault, secretly we all wanted the blokes to fall off their bikes in painful looking ways, and we usually got what we were after. There must have be quite a few bruised egos as well as bruised nether regions, as the comedy gold of a man falling onto a log with a leg either side was common place.

Kick Start was presented by Peter Purves who was a Blue Peter presenter in the days of Valerie Singleton and John Noakes, and he commentated over the proceedings with a calm yet genuinely interested manner. Of course, he too joined in with the giggles during the slips, with one memorable occasion being when a young lad fell into a lake, and the St. John’s ambulance men who came to help him ended up falling in too!

The show also spawned a kids version, Junior Kick Start, which had slightly simpler obstacle circuits for the teenage (and younger) competitors. They were still pretty demanding though. I must admit though, as a kid I was always a little confused why kids my age were allowed to be riding motorbikes.

The theme song was also very distinctive, and highly memorable. It was actually called Be My Boogie-Woogie Baby by Mr. Walkie-Talkie which may not sound like a fitting theme song for a show about motorcycle stunt riding, but it did fit incredibly well. OK, they added the motorbike revving sounds at the end, but I can still hum it now.

The popularity of the show was even captured in videogame form with the budget game Kik Start (note the change in spelling to avoid legal issues). In these games you had to drive your bike over a horizontally scrolling set of obstacles without losing balance, with the Kick Start theme tune repeatedly playing away in the background. A later sequel even added a level editor so you could make your own circuits.

I’ll finish off with this little clip of Peter Purves talking about Kick Start, which features some of that jolly theme song and some clips of the riders doing their thing (and falling off painfully too).

Edward started acting in the 1950s, but it was in the late 1960s that he became a household name in the spy series Callan. This fame brought him a movie role in the 1973 film The Wicker Man, a truly chilling horror film about a police officer investigating strange cult like behaviour in a sleepy little backwater village.

For me personally though, Edward Woodward will always be Robert McCall from The Equalizer, which ran for four seasons from 1985 to 1989. This is one of those series that has stuck in my mind for the amazingly scary title sequence and theme tune, with the shot of Robert McCall stood in a dark alley in a pair of car headlights being an image that will be burnt in my mind forever more.

The Equalizer has been a show that I have wanted to write about on this site for some time, but I never have simply because apart from the title sequence I don’t remember much about the actual storylines. I know that Robert McCall was once an agent in some kind of intelligence agency, but that when he retired he went into “business”, if you can call it that, as a righter of wrongs. He worked for free, and basically was like a one man A Team, helping those who were powerless to help themselves.

More recently Edward Woodward appeared as a dustbin man in the BBC comedy drama Common As Muck, and also starred in the Simon Pegg film Hot Fuzz, a film which mirrors The Wicker Man in some ways with its storyline. In March this year he also joined the cast of soap EastEnders, playing the role of Tommy Clifford.

Edward’s name has also been the source of several jokes, given that it sort of sounds like a record where the needle has got stuck. Morecombe and Wise used his name in one gag, where Eric asks Ernie who would star in one of the many plays he supposedly wrote. “Edward Woodward would”, was the reply. There is also the joke about removing the D’s from his name, leaving you with “Ewar Woowar”.

Rest in peace Edward, and I’ll leave you all with the title sequence to The Equalizer, which is how I will always remember this fine actor.

Sooty was first “discovered” by Harry Corbett whilst on holiday in Blackpool in 1948. He saw the little yellow bear puppet and bought it for his son Matthew, but it wasn’t long before Harry was using the bear as an assistant in his amateur magic act, naming him Teddy. The duo were spotted and in 1952 they went onto the nations airwaves thanks to a BBC talent show.

Since television was still only black and white a last minute decision was made to alter Teddy’s appearance to make him stand out better on screen. A black nose and mouth were added by Harry’s wife Marjorie and his ears were blackened with soot, which led to us new stage name, Sooty! He also got his trademark catchphrase, the magical phrase Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy, although of course given that Sooty never actually spoke out loud, this was said by Harry.

The act proved popular and in 1955 Sooty was given his own TV show, and a couple of years later a new little friend came along in the shape of Sweep the dog. Sweep was grey with long black ears but unlike the mute Sooty, who could only communicate with gestures or by whispering into Harry’s ear, Sweep made a strange squeaking sound. Bizarrely you could nearly always manage to understand what Sweep was trying to say despite it only being a series of squeaks.

As the years went by Sooty gained many new friends, but by far the longest lasting was Soo, the female panda bear. Soo was able to speak properly, and was normally far better behaved than the boisterous Sweep or the mischievous Sooty. I often found Soo a bit annoying because of this, as she always seemed to be a bit of a party pooper, but at least having Soo around made it a little easier for storylines to be introduced as the viewer had someone to tell you exactly what was going on.

It was the introduction of Soo that caused Sooty to go from the BBC to ITV, as apparently the BBC frowned upon the idea of Sooty having a girlfriend (come on, it’s a puppet!). Sooty has remained on the ITV ever since.

In 1976, after Harry Corbett fell ill, Sooty was taken over by his son Matthew, and for most children of the 1980’s it will be Matthew who we remember as being Sooty’s ill fated human friend. At the time Matthew did not care much for taking on the responsibility of Sooty and his chums, as he was enjoying his work as a singer on classic kids show Rainbow. Indeed, when Harry recovered father and son famously had a falling out as Matthew initially refused to let Harry go back out on tour with Sooty.

The family feud was brought to an end when Matthew backed down and allowed Harry to tour on stage with Sooty. Matthew rejuvenated the television show in the meantime, making it one of ITV’s most popular childrens shows. The format revolved mainly around Sooty, Sweep and Soo living in a lovely looking house with Matthew. Were the house real it would have had an interesting design, since there was clearly one floor level for Sooty and the gang and another for the humans in most of the house, who were only visible from the shoulders up!

In 2000 Matthew finally decided he wished to retire and so a search was on for a successor to keep Sooty going. This new presenter ended up being magician Richard Cadell, and it is Richard who is now Sooty’s right hand man. After 8 years of presiding over Sooty in his latest show, where they run a hotel, Richard finally purchased all rights to Sooty and is officially his new owner.

To finish then, given this is an eighties site, here is a video showing the various title sequences for The Sooty Show during Matthew Corbett’s tenure as the minder of the little magical yellow bear.

OK, I had a bigger afro then and my skin tone was decidedly darker on the rest of my body than it was on my face, but I was quite the mover, yeah?

Well, no, of course not. If I had attempted breakdancing it would certainly have been more break than dance. Vases, TV sets, legs, arms, the works. The above is of course a work of Internet trickery, courtesy of clothing brand Russell Athletic, who are reintroducing their range of sports wear into UK stores. The range includes T-Shirts, Hoodies, Shorts and more, so why not pop over to the Russell Athletic site to take a look, and make your own 80’s-ized movie featuring yourself or friends at the same time.