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08/09/2001 Archived Entry: "CBBC"

I tend not to watch children's TV these days, not simply because I passed out of their target market about half a decade ago but because I've found that the quality of cartoons has pretty imploded. So it was a pleasant surprise to find a decent documentary on CBBC today called Trading Places based on the 'grown up' version, where three young gymnasts from Southampton swapped places with a similar number in Moscow.

The programme basically consisted of the British gymnasts having the shit beaten out of them (metaphorically, of course) in the Russian gym - my favourite quote was when the gym director made a curt remark about them simply not being up to the standard. Mind you, they did work pretty hard. The Russian gymnasts, in comparison, had a fairly easy time of it in Southampton and didn't seem to be doing that much gymnastics anyway, eschewing it for the delights of shopping and cooking.

[The bits about the harsh Russian training regimen and so on weren't new to me, or I suspect many other older viewers (although I'm sure the younger ones appreciated it) so I won't bother going on about them.]

I think it's definitely a good reality check for British kids to watch programmes like this, so they realise that yes, things are different outside of this little island of ours. In past days, the Lowdown was probably the equivalent children's TV programme and pretty much everyone remembers the classic show which followed the training of the Wimbledon ballboys (repeated almost as much as the Snowman was back then).