Do you remember The Singing Ringing Tree? Were you a fan of the Moomins, and can you still remember the Banana Splits' theme tune? If the answer to these questions is yes and you find yourself thinking fondly of the shows of your formative years, this may well be the book for you. You were probably a child during the Seventies, when the bulk of the shows covered by this book were shown (approximately 1960-1988) and were resident in the UK, for although there are many US inclusions, and a few others too, this is mainly a book for the Brits.

If you are worrying that all this sounds just too sad, too anorak then the bantering and quasi-mocking tone taken by the author will smooth away any worries you might have about actually owning this book. This is not a serious "bible" for people whose lifelong obsession is children's TV, but a delightful meander down memory lane for the rest of us who know that anoraks are really only for wearing on a walk on the moor… Richard Lewis first tells us what constitutes a cult show and then gets on with an alphabetical list of the main ones, covering the best, the worst and the strangest, viewed refreshingly through the eyes of a person who loved (or hated) them in his childhood and now can tell the readers in an admirably succinct way what made them so special. Find out why Captain Pugwash was so notorious; read about the innuendos on Blue Peter and the episodes of Rainbow that they didn't let you see. Relive the rivalry between Tiswas and the Multicolored Swap Shop and feel very glad that you weren't a member of the cast of Diff'rent Strokes. This is just the sort of book that makes a great gift and would make a wonderful coffee table book. I can't stop looking at it…great nostalgia, and fun for just about anybody over thirty.

Note: There is a mention of Vision On, a TV show for the deaf.