Today’s recording starts with the end of Boogie Beebies. I commented that the presenter gave off a slightly creepy vibe, and my daughter said “Why did the children look sad” so I said “Because they’re being held prisoner by a creepy man and forced to dance for his pleasure”. I don’t think he was really creepy but I was amused by this exchange.
There’s a trailer for a new series, Me Too from the makers of Balamory.
Then, an episode of Come Outside – Soap. Our kids used to love this. Lynda Baron plays Auntie Mabel, who lives with her dog Pippin. She’s doing the washing. I love the non-brand box they’re using.
Pipping has been rolling around in the garden, so Mabel tells him he needs a bath. He runs off to hide. Pippin is a very well trained dog.
Mabel needs to buy some soap to wash Pippin, so she visits her local supermarket. I love the way the framing here makes it look like it’s called AFEW.
She is happier in the shampoo section than anyone really has a right to be. I was disappointed they didn’t fill the shelves with more faux brands for this sequence. Budgetary restrictions.
Now, if you haven’t ever seen this programme, what happens next might come as a bit of a surprise. She comes home with the soap, Pippin is still hiding, and Mabel decides she should go and find out how soap is made. So she walks out of her house, across the road into the field next door, and climbs into her aeroplane, to fly to a soap factory.
Pippin comes out of his hiding place, grabs the soap she left on the hall table, and hides it. This is a terrifyingly clever dog.
There’s something very satisfying about watching factory machinery.
There’s a musical interlude with a song about five lazy little monkeys.
When Mabel gets back from the factory, it’s raining, and she’s worried about the washing on the line. But Pippin has been helping by dragging it all indoors. Unfortunately, this has made it all dirty again.
Media Centre Description: Auntie Mabel looks at different kinds of soap on sale in the supermarket, visiting a factory where bars of soap are made from vegetable oil.
BBC Genome: CBeebies Saturday 26 August 2006 10:45
After this, there’s a few minutes of an episode of The Tweenies.
VHiStory 
A Few would be a half-decent name for a shop in a joke. Safeway of course was merged/amalgamated/killed off long ago.
Come Outside was a level-headed sort of show given its obvious remit to explain stuff in a simple enough way. Some might argue this was some of Lynda Baron’s best work.