Childhood Television Trauma

[meddow]

Anyone else used to watch The Animals of Farthing Wood as a kid? It was British kids cartoon that aired in the early 1990s from the book of the same name about a bunch of animals travelling from their home which had been destroyed to a nature reserve. I ask because a random, completely unrelated thing I'm working on for Uni got me onto thinking about the series and how much I loved it.

And then, I remembered the Hedgehogs and the motorway, and I actually cried. I watched that when I was seven, I'm now twenty-three and just thinking about it still makes me cry. But he couldn't move because he was terrified, and she went back for him and there was a lorry…and…*whimpers*

I think it's official that a children's television series has actually scarred me for life.

(Of course I could hunt it down and watch it, but there's no chance that series is as good in reality as it has become in my mind, and I'd rather stick with my trauma than lose my beloved show).

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

It is a children's show. I totally encourage a rewatch. Even if it's not that impressive to you, it wasn't for the age you are now anyway. Plus, nostalgia factor is likely to make it enjoyable anyway, even if differently.

Oh god, that does sound traumatizing.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I was just looking for it and turns out they haven't released it on DVD, so sadly I've got no option anyway.

The Hedgehogs is the most traumatic, but the Newts dying in a fire, the death of various foxes by other foxes and that baby rabbit that got shot also come to mind. With all that, I can't believe the show got made.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

...what the hell.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Well, this was about the same time in Britain when Russell T 'I wanna make my audience's hearts so bad that they remember it when they're 70' Davies and Steven 'OMFG! Scary angel!' Moffatt were writing kids shows. So maybe it was part of a general the early 1990s mindset of the writers to scar kids for life.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

A trend they continued into a children's sci-fi institution fifteen years later.

[rainshaded]

I cannot remember if I watched the TV series, but I think I had a book and I definitely had a Badger (who I remember playing with, kneeling up and walking it along the back of the settee one time I was allowed to stay up) and a Fox (whose tail I thoroughly chewed) plastic figure.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

You figures? *is jealous* I had the book as well, but I don't think I ever got around to reading it.

[fragglebo.livejournal.com]

I remember watching it as a kid but I don't remember the hedgehogs. Oh dear, maybe I suppressed those memories because it was too painful. I often think of the things I used to watch as a kid and I can't believe they actually used to be able to air it for children. I'm sure I'm scarred by a lot of it.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't believe they had that in a kids show. Then, kids are supposedly quite resilient. At least that's what I've been told. And, I'd more like to be exposed to harsh realities of life by watching a cartoon hedgehog get squished over a real one.

Still, I wonder if they would the Hedgehog's death in a cartoon made today.