10 Nostalgic British Children's TV Classics

1. Tottie: The Story Of A Doll's House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8f2Le2B3ok This strange and dark little animated series is based on a book by Rumer Godden and its depressive and melancholy air affected me so much as a child, that I had to get it on DVD as an adult. The story concerns a group of dolls. There is Mr Plantagenet - a moustachioed doll who reads the paper all day, the bubbly and happy Birdie - Mr Plantagenet's wife - who is a cheap celluloid Christmas cracker doll, Apple their son - a tiny plush doll and Darner their dog. Also living with them is Tottie - a painted wooden doll who is the voice of reason. They live in a draughty box, this is all they have ever known except for Tottie, who regales them all with tales of her time in a doll's house. Their owner's Emily and Charlotte come by a doll's house. The dolls are thrilled with the house until Marchpane - a snooty antique doll dressed in lace with amazing blue eyes - moves in and proves herself to be very nasty and vindictive. She is particularly manipulative toward Apple, trying to turn him against his parents and starts a deliberate fire in the doll's house to trap Apple and ensure the death of Birdie, who will want to save her son but is made out of celluloid and will go up in flames. For her sins Marchpane gets shoved in a box which would mightily vex her as she loved to be on show. Not aired on TV since 1986. There was a second series but it has vanished into thin air and was never shown. Tottie is a very morbid little children's series which must have put a real downer on all the kids watching it - myself included. But that is what made it so special, it didn't speak down to kids, it exposed them to the theme of death. There was a really good villain in the shape of the murderous Marchpane and the characterisation was excellent - making you care about what happened to them. Never really given the respect it is due, I declare Tottie as the finest nostalgic British kid's TV show