Sock puppet

Show Me Show Me reminds me a little of Playschool, the TV programme I used to watch when I was small. But where you had Big Ted and friends on Playschool, presenters Chris and Pui have a robot-doll called MoMo, Miss Mouse, Teddington, Tom the rag-doll, and Stuffy the cube. It mixes up stories, songs, and a series called Penelope, a bit like a magazine show for pre-schoolers. Not forgetting the random and mischievous sock puppets.

It might as well be called the Chris and Pui show, and in fact they tour periodically as 'Chris and Pui'. I recognised Chris' face when I saw the programme, and - thanks Google, for making me feel really old - it turns out that he is the same Chris Jarvis that was in The Broom Cupboard on Children's BBC (was it CBBC back then? I think not...) that I remember watching as a kid. He hasn't aged badly, has he?

It was a bit of a shock to realise it was him. Although to be fair, it was definitely in the twilight days of my childhood that he did his stint in The Cupboard. It's odd to see the presenters of my youth popping up today...

For instance, I was watching something recently when Andrew O'Connor popped up. (Not literally in my house, that would be plain weird. It was some documetary vox-pop - I'm going to hazard a guess, for whose veracity I shall not be held accountable, that it was Stephen Fry's 100 Best Gadgets.) Andrew O'Connor, I thought! I remember you from... something on Saturday mornings. No 73? On The Waterfront? Both, as it turns out. These days though, he's a producer on Peep Show as well as most of Derren Brown's stuff. (Were you messing with our minds, back in the day, Andrew? Is this how Derren Brown's routines work? We've all been brainwashed back in the 80s, via kids TV?! Explain yourselves!)

And fellow Broom-Cupboard veteran Andi Peters is now of course a reknowned producer, creator of T4 and occasional guest on Radio 1's breakfast show, as well as still presenting in various places (for 'grown-up' things like Heat Radio). He's ageing very well too.

And - bringing us nicely back to the start - the inimitable, indomitable Floella Benjamin. Heroine of my Playschool days, she's only in the bally House of Lords! Voting, I trust, in the next week or so to save our NHS. (I 'adopted' a Lord through the 30 Degrees campaign, such a shame I didn't get Floella!) And she looks EXACTLY the same as I remember. Is there a wall of Dorian Gray presenter portraits somewhere in White City?

I wonder where the kids presenters of today are going to end up? Mr Bloom as Agriculture 'Tsar'? Justin Fletcher for PM?! Curious times we live in...

And if you really need instructions on how to put together a sock-puppet, not even Derren Brown can help you, but here you go:

Take
A sock
2 googly eyes
Some paper

Put sock on hand
Use thumb to create mouth
Stick eyes on sock
Cut out eyelashes from paper and stick to sock. Or use the sticky bit from a Post-it note and save yourself some glue...