Death and resurrection

Two unrelated pieces of news today. The first is that Orange are killing off Wildfire, their voice recognition service. I'm sure that when it worked it was terribly useful, but everytime I called anyone who used it was I was always to state my name. The service promised, in it's svelte and seductive female voice, that it would remember my number and would never ask me to repeat my name again. It never worked. Amnesia seemed to strike each time I rang. Was that a hint of contempt I sensed beneath it's velvet tones? I couldn't say for certain. Goodbye Wildfire - you never knew me, or never remembered me at least.

The second and vastly more important bit of information is that the BBC are contemplating bringing Jackanory back to our screens.

Jackanory was the sort of concept that, like black and white tv, seemed to belong to another forgotten era, when children really did watch television with Mother, and all that any child had to fear in the world could be explained by a poorly animated boy and his cat. It was an anachronism, even to me as a child of the seventies and eighties. The concept couldn't have been any simpler. There were no garish colours, no sets of any note for the most part, or even a cast. Just a single narrator. And a story of course.

I've probably forgotten more than I remember now. In some cases just the presenters faces remain. Bernard Cribbins is unsurprisingly ingrained deep into my memory, as is Kenneth Williams with his unforgettable sneer, and host of others - though in most cases I couldn't begin to tell you what they recited. And in some cases the stories remain without the narrator. I remember Little Nose, and a swath of Dahl stories of course. I doubt we shall ever see a finer performance from Rik Mayall than during his deliciously spiteful rendition of Roald Dahl's "George's Marvellous Medicine" - I do so wish the BBC would release that particular masterpiece on DVD. Fragments of other tales remain, along with the imagery invoked. Potent memories too, from just someone reading out loud.

I was surprised just how long Jackanory survived. If you'd asked me I would have guessed that it faded away ended at some point during the mid to late 80's. In truth that's more likely when I stopped watching it. I feel a little sad thinking about that, being unable to pinpoint such a thing. Just one more thing that slips away as time matches on without anything to mark it's passing. The series in fact it continued until 1996. Quite a feat that.

If I'm honest, I'll confess there's a good chance I shan't even watch Jackanory when it returns, but I'll still be able to bask in a rosy glow of nostalgia simply from the knowledge that somewhere out there children are sitting comfortably and the story is about to begin all over again.