Saturday 13 June 2015

161 For Schools and Colleges : Picture Box



First  watched : 1973-74

I'm  not  sure  whether  we  watched  this  at  school  throughout  the  academic  year  or  even  if  it  was  on  for  more  than  one  term  but  I  have  a  particular  memory  that  places  it  in  that  time  frame. Picture  Box  was  presented  by  former  Coronation  Street  actor  Alan  Rothwell  ( the  luckless  David  Barlow )  who  was  there  to  provide  an  introduction  to  a  short  film  sourced  elsewhere  in  the  world. You  never  knew  quite  what  to  expect  and  of  course  interest  in  the  contents  varied  greatly  from  one  week  to  another.

The  one  I  remember  oddly  enough  is  the  one  I  didn't  really  watch. I  had  got  in  the  habit   with  my  friend  Patrick   where  I  would  write  the  name  of  four  cars  from  my  Matchbox  collection  in  a  little  notebook   during  lessons   and  then  pass  it under  the  desk  for  him  to  write  the  result  of  a  "race"  between  them   and  pass  it  back. The  class  teacher  - universally  regarded  as   a   useless  eccentric  so  it  seems  unfair  to  name  him - wouldn't  have  noticed  if  we'd  detonated  a  bomb. One  Thursday   morning  I  took  it  into  the  hall   and   we  did  it  all  the  way  through  Picture  Box  which  that  day  was  an  animated  story  and  were  roundly  chastised  by  those  of  our  classmates  who  were  close  enough  to  notice,  for  not  watching  something  that  had  been  really  good.  Why  they  did  this  , in  preference  to  alerting  the  teacher  to  what  was  going  on  , is  something  of  a  puzzle .

It  did  have  the  desired  effect  of  making  me  feel  guilty  and  regretful  that  I  had  missed  something  worthwhile   - I  don't  know  what  it  was  called  so  I  can't  make  it  good  with  YouTube  where  there  are  some  Picture  Box  episodes  available.  Unfortunately  it's  not  a  habit  I've  been  able  to  kick   ( stealing  time  for  something  more  interesting  than  what  I'm  supposed  to  be  doing )  although  my  current  job  doesn't  leave  much  scope  for  it  thankfully. My  powers  of  concentration  have  suffered  as  a  result.  


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