Vision On was a children tv show that intended mainly - but not exclusively - for hearing-impaired children initially. The spoken dialogue was kept to minimal to dispense with the conflicting need for close-up shots for lid-readers and mid-shots for Pat Keysell's sign language. The host for the entire run was Pat Keysell, a mime and dance teacher for the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. Magicians, jugglers and mime artists accompanied Keyshell for the first series. Quirky music filled the silence for hearing viewers.I like the second series and after for Vision On where artist Tony Hart joined as co-host with all sorts of painting ideas. Viewers were encouraged to send their pictures to The Gallery. I discussed with an old friend yesterday and recalled how happy one could be when you saw Tony could effortlessly paint grassland into an oak tree in just an instant.
I like that in the later series there was a Prof, a funny man in a lab coat, who enjoyed adventures in silent movie style (made me think of Dr Who and his TARDIS). Hart also created a new insect-like logo (see picture) by reflecting the programme's title in a mirror. Unfortunately, this programme was dropped in 1976. Hart and Dowling continued with wacky animations and art ideas in Take Hart (BBC 1977-83), while Clive Doig created puzzle show Jigsaw (BBC 1979-84). Both series owed much to Vision On's freewheeling invention.
2 comments:
Didn't we watch these programmes in the evenings when we were young?
Cool stuff!
Yeah! We watched them around 5ish. We liked both 'Vision On' & 'Take Hart' so much! We laughed non-stop when the prof appeared in his dodgy style and we never blinked our eyes when Tony Hart magically transformed a tree into a flower or a flower into a grassland. I hope children tv shows nowadays could fetch high educational values like programmes we watched when we were kids.
Post a Comment