0:00:02 > 0:00:05It's Christmas morning. Your parents are still fast asleep.
0:00:05 > 0:00:06Why won't they wake up?
0:00:06 > 0:00:08It's a quarter past four.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11You get out of bed, creep towards the curtains.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Has it snowed?
0:00:13 > 0:00:14No, it hasn't.
0:00:14 > 0:00:15But who cares?
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Today's not about what's out there.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21It's about what's in here.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Today, it's all about...the toys.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05Every year since Christmas began, way back in the early...1950s,
0:01:05 > 0:01:06the toys have been different,
0:01:06 > 0:01:08but the result has been exactly the same.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10There are toys you'll love for ever
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and the ones you'll forget about in seconds.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Toys you'll swap for football cards
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and the ones you'll defend with your life.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20This is the story of some of the best-loved toys of all time,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23and some of the worst, some of the strangest
0:01:23 > 0:01:28and some that'll make you say, "Oh, I had one of those. Yeah."
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Toys, as a whole, are just brilliant connections to the past.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Just like a piece of music or a smell,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55the touch of your teddy takes you back through the decades.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02- Boys used to make little tanks out of wooden bobbins.- That's right.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Cut edges on, with a candle and an elastic band and it would actually
0:02:05 > 0:02:09shoot matchsticks. Roll along the floor and shoot matchsticks.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12- That elastic band became a catapult as well.- Yes.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17There was one toy
0:02:17 > 0:02:20I got, and I must have been about three or four years old,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23and it was a circus -
0:02:23 > 0:02:28a circus with a train to carry all the animals in.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32And it was so brightly coloured and big to me, as a child.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35And it was kept at my grandmother's house, cos I'd go there regularly
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and play with it every single time I went there.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44And I found it again, aged about 15-16, and it seemed so small.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47But it really made me smile. It makes me want to cry now!
0:02:47 > 0:02:49Cos it's all wrapped up
0:02:49 > 0:02:50with memories of my nan and my grandad.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Yeah, that was a lovely present.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56I have to say,
0:02:56 > 0:03:02one of the greatest, magical moments of my Christmas was -
0:03:02 > 0:03:05I think I was aged, it was either five or six -
0:03:05 > 0:03:11I woke up, Father Christmas had been and there was a brand-new bike.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15It was like seeing paradise or heaven,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Shangri-La, Nirvana - there it was, it was a Grifter bike.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22It's freedom. It's the first sense of freedom.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25It's your own wheels. It is like having a car as an adult.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Early '80s, I think,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34was the highlights of my Christmas career.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36There was always some bit of plastic tat
0:03:36 > 0:03:38that you were desperate for!
0:03:38 > 0:03:41I had two My Little Ponys and there was something
0:03:41 > 0:03:43just really special about them. They were very compact.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48They had names. I had a horse when I was little, so most of the things
0:03:48 > 0:03:51that I liked were connected with horses, so it tapped into something
0:03:51 > 0:03:54that I was really excited about.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56I used to collect those Britain's Farmhorses.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00They were more precious to me then than life itself!
0:04:00 > 0:04:05It also chimed with the fact that, when I was aged between about
0:04:05 > 0:04:098 and 13, I actually wanted to BE a horse.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11I did spend quite a lot of time as a horse.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16I would go along the street, as if I was simultaneously horse and rider,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19occasionally slapping my own leg to make me go a bit quicker.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22As I say, I had a very troubled childhood!
0:04:22 > 0:04:25But I'm very fond of them. I wouldn't part with them
0:04:25 > 0:04:28and I'm happy to say I am no longer a horse.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Those little plastic things, it's actually quite strange
0:04:32 > 0:04:35how attached to those you could be.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37I've still got - it's in my handbag now -
0:04:37 > 0:04:39a Care Bear that I carry around with me, that I've always,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42since I was a child, carried around. Shall I show you?
0:04:43 > 0:04:44There. Good Luck Bear.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Toys that you touch and you look at. The ones you remember,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51the ones that are locked away somewhere in this memory bank
0:04:51 > 0:04:56and you can bring it back. When I see a Dinky or a Meccano set,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59it brings... It evokes those wonderful memories.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02I think they have a massive impression that they can leave,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04the best toys.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06This is from my day,
0:05:06 > 0:05:07actually!
0:05:07 > 0:05:08This is Sooty!
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Sooty is very, very popular, but there are so many of them
0:05:11 > 0:05:12and they made a lot,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16he's going to be £40-£50, something like that.
0:05:16 > 0:05:17Really?
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Yes, OK. No, he says he's worth more.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27It's the first thing you do on Christmas Day -
0:05:27 > 0:05:29open your stocking,
0:05:29 > 0:05:31because you don't even have to get out of bed.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35The tradition of Christmas stockings goes back to Norse times,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38when children would fill their clogs with carrots and straw
0:05:38 > 0:05:39for Odin's horse, Sleipnir.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Nowadays, things are a lot more sophisticated.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Odin has become Father Christmas and he gets
0:05:45 > 0:05:48sherry, mince pies, maybe a little brandy,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51chocolates, tot of whisky, slice of cake, maybe some Grappa.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53Basically, he gets plastered.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55And Rudolph still gets a carrot.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56Cheers(!)
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Most important of all, the clog has become a giant sock,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05into which you can stuff far more tat.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09The Christmas stocking of the '50s contained simple fare - nuts,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11fruit, maybe a skipping rope or, if you were really lucky,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14it might have an actual car.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Neeeoowww! Vvvvroomm! Brrrrooowwwww!
0:06:17 > 0:06:22You look a lot less mad if you do that with one of these in your hand.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26If you're a kid, full-size cars represent everything that is awful -
0:06:26 > 0:06:29incarceration, tedium and something your dad spends hours polishing,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31when he should be building you a treehouse.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36But reduce the scale of a car about 500 times and it was brilliant.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40It didn't matter if it was an Aston Martin or a Volvo estate -
0:06:40 > 0:06:42it was small, shiny
0:06:42 > 0:06:45and the perfect size to drive over your sister's face.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Vrrooommm!
0:06:57 > 0:07:01A car is a very beautiful machine, especially when you are a little boy.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06Sometimes you could get in them and they allow you to pretend to be...
0:07:06 > 0:07:08anybody.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09TYRES SCREECH
0:07:09 > 0:07:10ENGINE REVS
0:07:12 > 0:07:16We had a bit of ground you could go on, which was beaten earth, really,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20and we used to tow cars around on a string.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24The first contact I had was with a toy car, I suppose.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27With cars, well, first of all, you all want to be men
0:07:27 > 0:07:30and men drive cars. I don't know why we think that! Women drive cars.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34But as a boy, you kind of think dads drive cars.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42I had masses and masses and masses of cars.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44I loved cars. I started with Matchbox,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47cos they were cheapest. I got a little one every week,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49instead of pocket money.
0:07:50 > 0:07:51Lesney's,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55after World War II,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58hit on this thing - reducing a life-sized car,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03taking out the elements and selling it for one and six,
0:08:03 > 0:08:05a pocket money price. You'd have to save up for three weeks
0:08:05 > 0:08:08in order to be able to buy your next Matchbox car.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10And you'd keep it in your pocket.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Lesney Products started as a die casters.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17They made commercial die castings for the electrical industry -
0:08:17 > 0:08:22aerial sockets, pieces for record players, that sort of thing.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26But the way the tax laws worked then, if you had too much stock
0:08:26 > 0:08:29at the end of the year, you were taxed on it,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31so companies used to stop placing orders
0:08:31 > 0:08:32three months from their year end.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36So there was a commercial die caster thinking, "What am I doing
0:08:36 > 0:08:38"between October and December? I've got no orders."
0:08:38 > 0:08:42So there's Christmas. "Let's make some toys."
0:08:43 > 0:08:47It started in '51, in the cellar of a disused pub in Edmonton.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50It was in the cellar because it was the only part that had a roof.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53The rest of it had just been blown up, in the war.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55If you look at the first Matchbox toys made,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57they were all commercial vehicles.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02They were toys that a child would see rebuilding London,
0:09:02 > 0:09:06so there was a road roller, a cement mixer, a dump truck.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09It's things they saw every day and could identify with.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13It was really an idea of my father's partner, Jack.
0:09:13 > 0:09:14His daughter had come home and said,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"I've got to take something to school that can only fit in my hand."
0:09:17 > 0:09:20He had been playing around with the idea of making small cars
0:09:20 > 0:09:24and he'd made a mould of one, gave it to her and said,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26"It will fit in your hand. Take it."
0:09:26 > 0:09:28You could stop these vehicles with your little finger.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30They are Matchbox cars -
0:09:30 > 0:09:33two-inch replicas of their expensive big brothers.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Current models or vintage cars.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Collectors as well as children buy these toys,
0:09:39 > 0:09:44so the designer has to make sure the details have that authentic touch.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48With the Matchbox toys, it gave children a sense of ownership.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51It was small enough to be theirs.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56They were sold in the 1950s for one and sixpence - 7.5 pence.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00It was within the pocket money price for virtually everybody.
0:10:00 > 0:10:06The child could go into a shop with the week's or the month's pocket money and buy a car.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10In the early '60s, they built their biggest factory in the UK,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13which was about 250,000 square feet of production space,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16employed just over 1,500 people and at its top rate
0:10:16 > 0:10:19could produce something like a million toys per day.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23- NEWSREEL:- 'Today, the entire miniature car industry in Britain
0:10:23 > 0:10:24'turns out 500 million models a year.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29'In fact, it's growing more rapidly than any other side of the world's toy production
0:10:29 > 0:10:31'and this company leads the world.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36'Not surprisingly, they've just received their second Queen's Award to Industry -
0:10:36 > 0:10:38'not bad for a firm that started in such a small way.'
0:10:38 > 0:10:41The Queen came to visit one year with Prince Philip.
0:10:41 > 0:10:46I have to say, it was the cleanest I think my father had ever seen the factories.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Everybody was dressed up to the nines for her visit
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and she stayed about three hours, walking around,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56and went away with some toys for the boys, so everybody had a good day.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59My father lived and breathed Matchbox toys.
0:10:59 > 0:11:00He would always tell you
0:11:00 > 0:11:03that the best model they ever made was the London bus,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06because everyone knew what a London bus looked like,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10whether they lived in London, New York, Sydney or Moscow,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13they all knew that London buses were red,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15so as long as he had a London bus in the range, he was happy.
0:11:23 > 0:11:24I think having a little toy car
0:11:24 > 0:11:28was one step towards driving one yourself.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31You could really sort of take it anywhere
0:11:31 > 0:11:32and do anything with it,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35it could jump over the sofa or whatever you wanted it to do,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38so it was a real sort of toy that you could seriously control.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41# Drivin' home for Christmas
0:11:43 > 0:11:46# Oh, I can't wait to see those faces... #
0:11:46 > 0:11:50I couldn't be a racing driver in a real car
0:11:50 > 0:11:54but I could have a Dinky and I could pretend I was a racing driver.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57This is a genuine Dinky Alfa Romeo,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00made in England, Meccano, number 232.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Iconic of the time. I can be the driver.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08We used to race these down slopes and by golly could they go.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13This particular model will beat my grandson's Hot Wheels
0:12:13 > 0:12:18every single time and it's still usable after 50-plus years.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24When I was growing up, there were gimmicky cars,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27so not only would you have, say, a car,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29but it was a car that turned into a submarine.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33It looks just like a normal car, doesn't it? Obviously.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38And there were also missiles in the top and you would do that
0:12:38 > 0:12:43and what I remember about that primarily is my mum had cats,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47and one of the greatest things we'd do is I'd put missiles in there,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50little red missiles, and I'd just go behind the cat
0:12:50 > 0:12:53and I would just go like that and it would fire one.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56They were really good, you could hit the cat at the back end
0:12:56 > 0:13:00and it would run off and so, you know, what more could you want?
0:13:02 > 0:13:04OK.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Ooh! HE LAUGHS
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Oh! Oh!
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Well, well, well, well, well!
0:13:27 > 0:13:31My dreams have come true!
0:13:31 > 0:13:36I've had to wait all these years and here it is.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Lots of children around me
0:13:41 > 0:13:45were getting Scalextrics, which I never had.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47It was a racing game and you think of the great racing names,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Stirling Moss.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53These cars, when they came out, were full of imaginative possibilities.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57You've got figure-of-eights and it goes through tunnels
0:13:57 > 0:14:00and chicanes and valleys, over hills, all that kind of thing.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03# I'm travelling at the speed of light
0:14:03 > 0:14:06# I wanna make a supersonic man out of you... #
0:14:06 > 0:14:10It was great when you could control the car enough for it
0:14:10 > 0:14:14to go around the track very gently and you could sit there for hours
0:14:14 > 0:14:15and it would continue to go round,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19but the best thing about a Scalextric was making it do
0:14:19 > 0:14:21what it wasn't designed to do -
0:14:21 > 0:14:23basically, turning the track into a ramp
0:14:23 > 0:14:25to see how far you could fly your car
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and see how much you could knock off the shelf, you know?
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Get it into the bird cage.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33# Don't stop me now If you wanna have a good time... #
0:14:33 > 0:14:36I wanted to create a whole country,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40take a whole room and just turn it into one huge set.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43That's what I wanted.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Up until the 1960s, Christmas shopping was a tranquil delight.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59You walked to the high street, which was lightly dusted in snow
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and bought a single present from the toy shop, usually a bicycle.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06This would then be delivered by a ruddy-cheeked lad on another bicycle
0:15:06 > 0:15:09to whom you would throw a shiny penny - job done.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Another lad on another bicycle would bring a goose and a truckle of voles' hearts
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and that was your Christmas shopping taken care of - lovely!
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Now Christmas shopping is officially designated by the UN as a form of war,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24albeit one that is exempt from the Geneva Convention.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26Like most other forms of modern warfare,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28it is mainly carried out via computers
0:15:28 > 0:15:31situated hundreds of miles from the combat zone,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34which is a warehouse the size of Lincolnshire, in Lincolnshire.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38CASH REGISTER RINGS
0:15:38 > 0:15:43- What do you want for Christmas? - A new bike and a pencil sharpener.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45- Chocolate train?- Yes, please.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50- A sewing set.- Tell me, what is it you want?- A gun.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55# It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
0:15:55 > 0:15:58# Toys in every store... #
0:15:58 > 0:16:03Going to a toy shop was like a dream come true.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07It was an incredible adventure.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13There would be emporiums in the city centre of Manchester
0:16:13 > 0:16:16we'd be taken to, like Aladdin's cave. It was like heaven,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20but you wouldn't expect to come away with something, necessarily..
0:16:20 > 0:16:23The idea of the child going wild
0:16:23 > 0:16:25with excitement, with a massive list
0:16:25 > 0:16:29of things that they want really starts to take off
0:16:29 > 0:16:34in the mid to late '60s. By that stage, a new consumer revolution
0:16:34 > 0:16:38has really bit into British life.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43The kind of bold new era of the big, expensive toy is emerging.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48I grew up in the purple patch for modern toys, which was the 1970s.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50It was the crossover, really,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54people were dumping those hapless old pick-up sticks, toy soldiers.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59In were coming the first electronic games, pneumatic games, racing games
0:16:59 > 0:17:02that you could pump up, all sorts of things were happening in the '70s.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06I've seen this massive evolution towards saying,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09"This is a big market the business needs to go for,"
0:17:09 > 0:17:12and I suspect that's been helped through the media,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16through the accessibility to those children. I wasn't sold to as a child
0:17:16 > 0:17:20in the same way that children are sold to now.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22I can safely say, as a father-of-two myself,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26the amount of adverts for toys on TV
0:17:26 > 0:17:30during the kids' programming is horrendous.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35Every single advert, my eldest boy, Tommy, goes, "Can I have that?
0:17:35 > 0:17:38"Can I have that? Can I have that? Can I have that?"
0:17:38 > 0:17:41And we've given up trying to say, "No, Tommy."
0:17:41 > 0:17:43Now we just go, "Yep. Yep. Yep."
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Children are very aware that if they want it badly enough
0:17:47 > 0:17:49and they keep going on about it,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53then that is a very powerful tool to get the thing that they want.
0:17:57 > 0:18:03But who cares about Christmas shopping? That's what the staff are for - Mum, Dad, grandparents.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06What counts is that everything is downstairs now,
0:18:06 > 0:18:07waiting for your attention.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13The humble tree has borne fruit
0:18:13 > 0:18:15and dropped its magnificent harvest of presents.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Hey, kids, look at that little lot.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23We all remember that feeling of staring at the vast heap of presents and thinking,
0:18:23 > 0:18:28"Two or three of those are mine."
0:18:32 > 0:18:37Dolls were invented so little girls could carry their baby brother or sister around
0:18:37 > 0:18:41without the screaming and the awkward visits from the social services when they dropped them.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44At first, they were innocent and charming,
0:18:44 > 0:18:45but then something happened.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Dolls started to grow up from babies to toddlers, to children.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54Soon they were older than the little girls who were playing with them
0:18:54 > 0:18:56and when they hit puberty, all bets were off.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59They quickly developed a fashion sense,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01a love for accessories, boyfriends and cars.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06And who had to buy it for them? You did, of course, to show you love them.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09You do love your doll, don't you?
0:19:09 > 0:19:14Then why haven't you bought her a new bag, a new dog, a new boat, a new house?
0:19:15 > 0:19:19One, two, three.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52Early dolls were made really as more as fashion items than as toys.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55They wouldn't have been particularly play items,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58at least up until the 19th century.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01A lot of dolls were actually quite difficult to play with.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05They were quite delicate, you had to be careful with them.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10# Got myself a crying, talking Sleeping, walking, living doll... #
0:20:10 > 0:20:12This was my first real doll.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16It was very special. I can remember reaching down, feeling and thinking,
0:20:16 > 0:20:22"Oh, gosh, it is a doll." When I opened it and its eyes opened and closed, that was wonderful.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Because they were made of pottery, any bump or bang
0:20:25 > 0:20:29chipped a little piece off. This one has a piece out of her head.
0:20:29 > 0:20:35So, really, you treated them very gently, there was no swinging them round by their arms.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38It wasn't until the introduction of plastic
0:20:38 > 0:20:41that dolls just became more and more realistic.
0:20:49 > 0:20:56# ..Got myself a crying, talking Sleeping, walking, living doll... #
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Tiny Tears was the first one that grabbed the public's imagination.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02The name as well, it was a very clever name.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Tiny Tears was a favourite. Her arms used to come off
0:21:05 > 0:21:10and clearly she used to wee everywhere because that was her great attraction,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12so once you had Tiny Tears,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14she had to be left in the bathroom,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17otherwise, she'd just leak from limbs all over the place.
0:21:27 > 0:21:33The fashion dolls of the 1960s are something everybody knows about now.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36The best-known fashion doll, of course, is Barbie.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38The main attraction, I suppose,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42if you can call it that, of having a teenage doll was that
0:21:42 > 0:21:47she did have a bust, she had a bosom of sorts. She did.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49When you're 10 or 11,
0:21:49 > 0:21:54you want to look, like everybody, a young teenager yourself,
0:21:54 > 0:21:59and so it was a sort of aspirational thing to have a doll like that.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02The dolls are always an extension of your own personality.
0:22:02 > 0:22:08They tap into something in little girls, particularly, and in boys as well,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13about that need to dress up and to customise yourself.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17# Every girl dreams of being a star
0:22:17 > 0:22:21# No matter how young or old they are
0:22:21 > 0:22:24# Of having a garden to make things grow
0:22:24 > 0:22:28# Sindy is every girl's dream. #
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Sindy's whole world was skewed
0:22:30 > 0:22:34to what was happening with the girl next door,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37or maybe the aspirational girl next door.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41There were things like horses, ponies, stables.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46A reflection in miniature of what is happening in the world outside.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49We used to make a lot of things for her -
0:22:49 > 0:22:51little room sets, that kind of thing.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55One of my first makes was a four-poster bed,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58which was a triumph of cereal boxes and frills.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00I think she was special
0:23:00 > 0:23:04because you could invest some of your grown-up emotion into her.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07She was like an older version of you.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14One year I got the Sindy house, which is a three-storey house.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17My parents had to install it and put this thing up
0:23:17 > 0:23:20and apparently they were still putting it up at one o'clock in the morning
0:23:20 > 0:23:24when they had to ring for help. They'd had a bit of wine by then,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27so it was a difficult task, but there was nothing more over-joying
0:23:27 > 0:23:30than seeing that wrapped up on Christmas Day.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44There were a lot of other British fashion dolls
0:23:44 > 0:23:48that came out following Sindy and one of these was Daisy.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56I wanted to do a doll that was fashionable
0:23:56 > 0:23:58in the way my clothes were fashionable.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10We had these very...11-inch dolls, like the same size as Sindy,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14and we made all the clothes to go for it,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17which were much like our collection.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26We would show the clothes to the press
0:24:26 > 0:24:28on real models, the best models,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31which we gave them hair so they looked like Daisy the doll,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33and the clothes were kind of full-scale,
0:24:33 > 0:24:40and that was a wow! It was King's Road absolutely all over again.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47Boys wouldn't have said,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50"I'm playing with a doll," but it was a doll for boys.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Action Man was a soldier.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58There was nothing girlie about Action Man. He had guns.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03Anybody who has as fond memories of Action Man as I do
0:25:03 > 0:25:06will remember, and they'll know what I am doing,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09is that Action Man, you'd put your hand to the back of action man's head
0:25:09 > 0:25:13and just do that with a little button. His eagle eyes.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20I didn't want anything too rugged to put my Action Man in.
0:25:20 > 0:25:26I wanted the amazing uniform from the Charge of the Light Brigade,
0:25:26 > 0:25:31so my Action Man was the only Action Man that had thigh boots.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37My Action Man never played with other Action Men.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39If friends of mine came round,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42my Action Man was very aloof and snooty,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45but he looked sensational. By thunder, he looked good.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Toys have been around as long as children,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56who have been around nearly as long as adults.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00As soon as the first child spun a stick or threw a pebble at a sabre-tooth tiger,
0:26:00 > 0:26:01toys were in the world.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05The very first top-ten lists in the year's most wanted toys included
0:26:05 > 0:26:10the hoop, the ball, the piece of wood and, the runaway bestseller
0:26:10 > 0:26:14for 700 years, the pig's bladder on a stick.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16In the years after World War II,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19rationing led to a national shortage of pigs' bladders.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22As the shortage bit and the children of Britain turned instead
0:26:22 > 0:26:24to unexploded bombs as playthings,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28toy manufacturers were forced to come up with safer alternatives.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31For kids, the great advances in technology in the 20th century
0:26:31 > 0:26:35suddenly had a purpose - toys.
0:26:51 > 0:26:56A toy to me is anything that a child plays with.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00You can't define it.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04It's all play and they're all toys.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06All children play with toys,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09it's just what you count as a toy, isn't it? A stick is a toy,
0:27:09 > 0:27:11a bit of mud in the backyard is a toy.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15You don't have to have money to be playing with toys.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18In some ways the simpler stuff's great because it helps you
0:27:18 > 0:27:19develop your imagination more.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22- Would you like some cake?- Yes.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26I guess the history of toys is the history of the human race
0:27:26 > 0:27:30in small form and it's the history of industrialisation and consumerism,
0:27:30 > 0:27:35and gender history and it is social history in a tiny nutshell.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40You can see, for example, when Princess Victoria was growing up
0:27:40 > 0:27:44in a very controlled, princess-like environment,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47she didn't get to have much fun but one of the fun things that
0:27:47 > 0:27:51she did get to do was to dress up all of her little peg dollies with her governess.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54She had 150 of them, she made their own little costumes for them
0:27:54 > 0:27:58and she invented these crazy back stories, they all had scandalous lives,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03they were duchesses, they were having lovers, going off and doing this, that and the other.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08It's great that she had something outside her immediate environment to engage her imagination.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14Playing with toys is role-play, really.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18Playing with other children with your toys, you're communicating,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20you're learning how to get on together.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25You make real-life situations within a play set-up.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27It is how we work out the world,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31how we understand the world and everybody's got to play.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Your toys and you had an equal relationship,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40so when you are playing with them and with other people,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44because my sister and I were passionate about playing with the small dolls together,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48you invented a world and it was a world that you understood because you had made it yourself,
0:28:48 > 0:28:53and although there was jeopardy in it - the doll that survives the fall from the windowsill -
0:28:53 > 0:28:56it's still jeopardy that you've imposed,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59so the psychological thing is that you are creating order.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07I think that toys can give you an entirely different
0:29:07 > 0:29:12and an utterly controllable narrative.
0:29:12 > 0:29:18It's a trigger, or a key, to enter into a mysterious world.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22I think the kind of things that a child plays with
0:29:22 > 0:29:25and continues to play with,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28very often influence their careers
0:29:28 > 0:29:31and what they do and what they choose to do.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33It's bound to make a big difference,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35what you play with when you're a kid.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38You could say which comes first, are you that sort of person
0:29:38 > 0:29:42so those are the toys you'd enjoy, or is it that you enjoy those toys
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and it makes you into a different person? I don't know,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48but there's no doubt, almost everything I remember enjoying
0:29:48 > 0:29:52as a kid has got some sort of echo in my later life.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54There's one toy that changed my life
0:29:54 > 0:29:57and it wasn't mine, it was my sister's.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Somebody bought my sister a little record player
0:30:01 > 0:30:06and it was a portable... This was quite a desirable toy.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10A portable record player, where you put the vinyl on
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and you put the needle on the record
0:30:13 > 0:30:16and it goes round like it should.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19And I think it was battery operated and it would play tunes
0:30:19 > 0:30:23out of a very bad speaker system, but we could hear it.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25She got that, I remember, one Christmas,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and I got The Jackson Five's Greatest Hits.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30So it was a marriage made in heaven.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33Me and my sister became very close for about a year.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37I'd put the album on on her record player and we'd dance to it.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41The only record we had for about a year and we played it every day.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44And I fell so much in love with The Jackson Five
0:30:44 > 0:30:48that I just fell into music massively
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and I started getting obsessed and buying records
0:30:51 > 0:30:55with all my dinner money, my bus fare and I still have
0:30:55 > 0:30:58thousands of records to this day! Mainly because of that toy.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06In the '50s, the universe was still a place of mystery and wonder.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10Space was still the final frontier, not a CGI backdrop.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12No-one looked up at the stars and thought,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15"Actually, that looked better on Battlestar Galactica."
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Space represented the outer limits of the human imagination
0:31:19 > 0:31:22and wherever the human imagination went, toys soon followed.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35July 1st marked the beginning of one of the great
0:31:35 > 0:31:38scientific adventures of our time.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42# This is ground control to Major Tom
0:31:42 > 0:31:46# You've really made the grade... #
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Three, two, one, zero.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52All engines running.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54The '60s, it was all about the Space Race.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59Lift-off, we have lift-off. 22 minutes past the hour,
0:31:59 > 0:32:01lift-off on Apollo 11.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06Toys were actually very important in reflecting what goes on
0:32:06 > 0:32:07in real life.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11# I'm stepping through the door... #
0:32:11 > 0:32:16I'm at the foot of the ladder. Time to step on to land now.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19It's one small step for man,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22one giant leap for mankind.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25We were obsessed - a man had walked on the moon
0:32:25 > 0:32:29and all our toys reflected that paraphernalia.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33My best Christmas morning, there was a toy called Johnny Astro.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36It was like a balloon that attached to legs.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40It was like a joystick that moved this articulated fan.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43You had a throttle to get the power
0:32:43 > 0:32:46and you could actually ride the balloon on this jet of air
0:32:46 > 0:32:49and steer it around the room. It was brilliant.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I remember once, I'd just got it and the budgie took it down.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57It was like Black Hawk Down. Pop! That was my Johnny Astro.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03People were hooked into this idea of other worlds.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07It took over people's imagination and the toy manufacturers
0:33:07 > 0:33:09were very quick to spot this and, er,
0:33:09 > 0:33:11created all sorts of weird and wonderful
0:33:11 > 0:33:13science fiction characters.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19I remember seeing the big package and thinking,
0:33:19 > 0:33:24"Oh, my God, is that the Millennium Falcon? Please let it be the Millennium Falcon."
0:33:24 > 0:33:28And even when you start to see a bit of the picture of it on it
0:33:28 > 0:33:30you think, "But what if I'm wrong?
0:33:30 > 0:33:33"What if it's a Millennium Falcon duvet set?"
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Or, "What if it's Millennium Falcon pyjamas?
0:33:35 > 0:33:38"I'll never forgive her, but I've got to smile."
0:33:38 > 0:33:41And you rip a bit more and you think, "It looks really like it is,"
0:33:41 > 0:33:44and when you realise it is, oh, you just...
0:33:44 > 0:33:46I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I got the Millennium Falcon.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54The unlikely centre of every little boy's space age universe
0:33:54 > 0:33:57is the Palitoy factory at Coalville in Leicestershire.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01Here, the women are riveted to one of the busiest
0:34:01 > 0:34:03production lines in the trade.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07The staff here has just about doubled to meet demand.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17There were always toys - Action Men, we all had Action Men -
0:34:17 > 0:34:20but, suddenly, you'd see something at the cinema, then there'd be
0:34:20 > 0:34:22the toy that went with it, you would have to have it.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27I think the Star Wars phenomenon is the most
0:34:27 > 0:34:32explosive thing that's happened in the last century.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38The whole idea of these really frightening faces,
0:34:38 > 0:34:42if you can call them faces, and they're all very aggressive.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45This is a big version.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48They have different sizes. This would have been,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52probably, quite an expensive version. With the original box for this one,
0:34:52 > 0:34:53it's very nice to have it.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56They make good money, you know. We're talking about hundreds,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59but they've got to have the original boxes.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02Not quite as chewed as this one.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05All the boys would have the figures,
0:35:05 > 0:35:11but you were really considered... better if you had one of the ships.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16This is the toy.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20It's the Star Wars Millennium Falcon.
0:35:20 > 0:35:21It makes noises.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24You can take the back off.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27They can play their space chess.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29- HE MIMICS SHOOTING - I do still very much love this toy
0:35:29 > 0:35:33and I am a little bit nervous about giving it to my two kids,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37but I have promised, when I get home, that I am giving this to the boys.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40So...goodbye. Goodbye, old girl.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46All over the universe, wars were erupting.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Well, they weren't. We made them up
0:35:48 > 0:35:50because there wasn't enough war here on Earth.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52Well, there was, but it wasn't fun war.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55That didn't worry the toy industry, though.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58While feminists were fretting about the effect Barbie and her friends
0:35:58 > 0:36:01were having on little girls, no-one was watching the boys.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Over in the blue corner, things were going absolutely haywire.
0:36:07 > 0:36:08I loved guns.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Guns, for me, were fab. I had every sort of gun.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14I was a one-boy armoury.
0:36:14 > 0:36:15GUNSHOT
0:36:19 > 0:36:22We spent a lot of time playing war games. We'd have our
0:36:22 > 0:36:25stick guns and we'd be crawling through the bushes and, essentially,
0:36:25 > 0:36:30killing each other. War and play, they're all part of culture,
0:36:30 > 0:36:31they're all part of life
0:36:31 > 0:36:35and as much as we like to think that society will be eternally peaceful,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38there'll always be some kind of disruption
0:36:38 > 0:36:40and this is often going to be reflected in toys
0:36:40 > 0:36:43and in how children relate.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45HE WAILS
0:36:45 > 0:36:48We used to have gunfights which were good.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52We'd try and work out who was the fastest on the draw.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54GUNSHOTS
0:36:54 > 0:36:58You'd meet your friends in the park and we'd count to three
0:36:58 > 0:37:00and then you'd reach for your revolver.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05I used to pretend to have a horse, which was quite good.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Sometimes you just had a stick, or whatever it was,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11and you'd gallop along. I suppose it looked rather strange.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23Every country, somehow, has to reproduce its armies.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28What happened in Germany, once Hitler came to power, was that
0:37:28 > 0:37:30a lot of German toy companies
0:37:30 > 0:37:33had to produce figures of the entire Third Reich.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36They are quite chilling when you see miniature Stalins
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and miniature Hitlers, but here,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41companies like Britains were doing the same.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46And kids were playing it out because it was part of their environment at the time.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51If you talk to people born during the war,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55they, quite often, played on bombsites.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59And there could be nothing more exciting than playing on a bombsite.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01You improvised in those days.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04You were going out, running around,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07pretending you were being chased by Japanese soldiers
0:38:07 > 0:38:09or Germans or whatever.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13It was ten years after the war, so very much still in memory.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17World War II was still very fresh in people's minds.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21We used to talk about going up to play on the bomby
0:38:21 > 0:38:24and it was this area of land where a land mine had dropped up the street,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28where incendiaries had dropped. Some front doors hadn't been repaired,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30but it basically was bombed buildings.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32So that was part of play.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Those kids who played on those bombsites,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39that was the beginning of the adventure playground movement.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42That's where that idea came from because playgrounds were
0:38:42 > 0:38:47very prescriptive, but if you could actually transpose in a safe environment
0:38:47 > 0:38:51that sense of adventure, of going into the unexplored
0:38:51 > 0:38:56and away from the adults, that was amazing.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03It's 11 o'clock and everyone is in the kitchen.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05It's Christmas, why are they in there?
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Are they nuts? Yes, they are.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11They're making Christmas dinner, they're swearing
0:39:11 > 0:39:14and drinking and crying and it's like a Mike Leigh film
0:39:14 > 0:39:17with bread sauce. I'd get out before you get dragged into it.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22You see that present? The ball-shaped one?
0:39:22 > 0:39:24It's a ball.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Grab it and run.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35We used to use a tennis ball to play football.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37Replica footballs weren't really available.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40It would be something special to get what we would call a Casey,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44which was like a leather football with a bladder inside
0:39:44 > 0:39:48and some stitching. And if you headed that, it would knock your head back,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50particularly if it was wet.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52Historically, the key toys have been the ball,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56something that spins, something to wrap up and cuddle,
0:39:56 > 0:39:58something on wheels to pull.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Different things come in, new materials and everything.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04But a ball is still a ball, and something so simple in design
0:40:04 > 0:40:09which has such huge ramifications, for catching,
0:40:09 > 0:40:16for kicking, and supports a huge industry, the football industry.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Where would it be without the ball?
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Here we are at the Subbuteo Stadium. Here come the teams.
0:40:28 > 0:40:33It's England versus Brazil. England kick off. A beautiful ball.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35And there's a quick breakaway.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38Oh, good play! England shoot.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40What a save! And it's a corner.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44Subbuteo was the traditional football game.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46So it's 1-0 to England.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48The pitch, from what I remember, was a cloth.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52The players were like little Weebles, little weighted, round things.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55And the player would be on this.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58And so it would wobble, but it wouldn't quite fall down.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02You get the goal, you could even get a crowd on the really special
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Subbuteo sets, and you really feel wow.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07You line your teams up, you get a ball,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11and basically you flick the base of the player and it kicks the ball.
0:41:15 > 0:41:16It was just post-war.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20There was actually a game on the market called New Footie.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23My father saw this and he suddenly had an idea
0:41:23 > 0:41:26that he could improve on it.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28He put an advert in a boys' magazine at the time.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31It was called Boy's Own magazine.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35He went away. I think he was in America on holiday.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37He got a telegram from his mum, saying,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40"I've had loads and loads of replies to this advert,
0:41:40 > 0:41:42"and people are actually sending in their postal orders."
0:41:42 > 0:41:44And he said, "We've got a bit of a problem.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47"People are sending in their money wanting a game
0:41:47 > 0:41:49"and there is no game to go out."
0:41:49 > 0:41:53So it was all hands to the pump to get a basic game up and running.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58And as it was post-war, he had a problem with getting the actual playing pitch.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02So what he did to get round that, he enclosed a piece of chalk
0:42:02 > 0:42:05in the game, and there were lots of old army blankets lying around,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09people had them at home. And with the instructions in the first sets,
0:42:09 > 0:42:11it said, "Here's a piece of chalk,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14"mark out your own pitch on an old army blanket."
0:42:14 > 0:42:17And that's really how it started.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19Subbuteo was the ultimate game you wanted as a boy.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22I remember getting our first set. The little men, it was brilliant.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24I remember them in their package
0:42:24 > 0:42:25with the goalie with the long green thing.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28And I had a Chelsea one and my brother got the Spurs one.
0:42:31 > 0:42:33I think the magic of it was
0:42:33 > 0:42:37that little boys, or even the dads, used to play.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41I think it's being able to recreate real football matches in miniature.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49We're human. We build. We can't help ourselves.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Ever since Neanderthal man took two bits of wood
0:42:51 > 0:42:53and joined them together with dried animal gut,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56we've made things with no discernible purpose.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59For some, this instinct led to such wonders as the pyramids,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Stonehenge, the ships that conquered the seas,
0:43:01 > 0:43:03the cities that reached for the skies.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Anyway, good luck to them. For the rest of us,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08it meant a wonky crane with the rope all twisted,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11or a Wellington bomber with one of the engines glued on back-to-front.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Construction toys are there to make our inner idiot
0:43:14 > 0:43:18feel like a Nobel Prize-winning engineer.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28I believe some products that really engage the child
0:43:28 > 0:43:31have a timeless appeal.
0:43:33 > 0:43:38You ask anyone that ever played with it, they LOVED their Meccano.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43Meccano - you were there, you were involved, you were an engineer,
0:43:43 > 0:43:45even at the age of seven, making little things.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48They are miniatures of real life, aren't they?
0:43:48 > 0:43:54And you've got your own world to set about and have as you want it.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58I'd build cranes, I'd lift things up, I'd build windmills.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02I even built my own pinball machine out of cardboard with flippers.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05I used bits of inner tube around the Meccano flippers.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09- Yeah.- It didn't spring, you just had to wind it.
0:44:09 > 0:44:10I could play with steel ball bearings.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14I still think Meccano was the great toy of...
0:44:14 > 0:44:16well, of my lifetime, really.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19These lovely surprise boxes used to arrive.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22My father used to bring them back from the factory.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25It was so fascinating, the way it was presented and boxed
0:44:25 > 0:44:27and so attractively painted.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29I've got here this box of Meccano
0:44:29 > 0:44:33which I think is probably late 1940s, which I bought
0:44:33 > 0:44:38in a closing-down sale in a shop for 60p about 30 years ago.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42Every set of Meccano had a handbook of what you could do,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45what you could make with that set.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48They originally called it Mechanics Made Easy.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50And then it was a bit of a long sentence
0:44:50 > 0:44:53so they just thought up Meccano,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57and it seemed absolutely right, didn't it? It still does, actually.
0:44:57 > 0:45:03Frank Hornby, who designed Meccano, is the most fascinating character.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08I remember him very well, although I was only seven.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13He always smoked gorgeous Corona cigars,
0:45:13 > 0:45:15so you knew when he was around.
0:45:15 > 0:45:21He had a lovely waxed moustache, wore very nice suits,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24and had a silver-topped cane.
0:45:24 > 0:45:30He actually was what I suppose you'd call a great Victorian.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Frank Hornby was a businessman, a bit of an inventor.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39He was looking for something for his sons to play with, something new.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43And, of course, they would build things out of construction sets,
0:45:43 > 0:45:46but in those days, they would be made of stone bricks
0:45:46 > 0:45:49or possibly wooden bricks and things like that.
0:45:49 > 0:45:54He had this idea to use strips of metal, nuts and bolts.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56You know, you got your little screwdriver and spanner
0:45:56 > 0:45:58and things like that.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01He created these designs that could make all sorts of different
0:46:01 > 0:46:04things out of this core kit.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13I think he was very interested in everything to do with windmills
0:46:13 > 0:46:19and natural energy and water mills and everything that worked naturally.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22And he thought that everything that was built was beautiful,
0:46:22 > 0:46:27and he wanted children to be able to reproduce them.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31He believed passionately - he was a man of his time -
0:46:31 > 0:46:35that boys should learn about mechanics and engineering.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39One of Frank Hornby's ideas was that he wanted boys in particular
0:46:39 > 0:46:41to think about what they were doing,
0:46:41 > 0:46:46and plan and follow probably quite a detailed plan.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Architects and engineers, you still hear them saying
0:46:50 > 0:46:52on the radio or on television,
0:46:52 > 0:46:54"We built it first with a Meccano set."
0:46:56 > 0:47:01This painting is of Winston Churchill and his nephews
0:47:01 > 0:47:05helping him to build a Meccano set.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Apparently Winston Churchill was going through a difficult time
0:47:09 > 0:47:13and needed something to perk him up, and it helped a lot.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19It's made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24It's exactly 8mm by 9.6mm with a 5mm diameter raised circle.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28It is, of course, a Lego brick, and it's been that way
0:47:28 > 0:47:32since exactly 1:58pm on the 28th January 1958.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Any brick manufactured from that moment onwards
0:47:35 > 0:47:39will fit into a brand-new Lego brick with the same satisfying...
0:47:39 > 0:47:41CLICK
0:47:41 > 0:47:42Isn't that lovely?
0:47:49 > 0:47:53The plastic generation started after the Second World War.
0:47:53 > 0:47:54The introduction of durable plastic
0:47:54 > 0:47:59is a significant turning point in toy production.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02Everybody started making all sorts of toys.
0:48:02 > 0:48:08Toys that were produced cheaply, all sorts of different colours.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10You could make anything out of plastic.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15A Danish chap called Christiansen
0:48:15 > 0:48:18thought this would be the thing to make bricks out of.
0:48:18 > 0:48:24I was probably one the first children in the country to get Lego
0:48:24 > 0:48:27and it was all, in those days, red and white.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32Either what we called eights or fours, like this.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37One of the things about Lego - and it was designed this way -
0:48:37 > 0:48:41is that every piece of Lego can be used with every other piece of Lego
0:48:41 > 0:48:43that's ever invented.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47It has such versatility.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Essentially, it's a brick but then, from that brick,
0:48:51 > 0:48:53you can make what you like.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58The great thing about it was you could build anything you wanted.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02It was a way of exploring your imagination, of creating another world.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07What Lego have done so brilliantly, they found a way to evolve
0:49:07 > 0:49:12the core principle of a building brick in a range of other areas.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16They did a brilliant commercial which captured this.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19That commercial, for me, is the best toy commercial ever.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23TOMMY COOPER: You see, I was standing outside my mouse-hole the other day
0:49:23 > 0:49:26when all of a sudden, along comes this cat.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30So, quick as a flash, I turned into a dog. A-ruff-ruff!
0:49:30 > 0:49:35But the cat turned into a dragon, so I turned into a fire engine.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37How's that?
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And then he turned into a submarine.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42So I became a submarine-eating kipper.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46I said a kipper, not a slipper. Thank you very much!
0:49:46 > 0:49:49But he turned into an anti-kipper ballistic missile
0:49:49 > 0:49:53so I turned into a missile cruncher. Crunch, crunch, crunch!
0:49:53 > 0:49:57Just in time to see him change into a very big elephant.
0:49:57 > 0:49:59So do you know what I did then?
0:49:59 > 0:50:01I turned back into a mouse and I gave him the fright of his life.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Just like that! Ha-ha-ha-ha!
0:50:05 > 0:50:09The secret to the most timeless toys and the best toys,
0:50:09 > 0:50:13is that, actually, they're not the end product.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17They allow you to play in different ways.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22So Meccano and Lego and Action Man and Barbie
0:50:22 > 0:50:25aren't really about what's produced by the manufacturer.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29They're about everything that's around it that's created
0:50:29 > 0:50:31by the person playing with it.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Lego is just a brick but then, when you build it up,
0:50:36 > 0:50:41it becomes a fire engine, a monster or a spaceship.
0:50:41 > 0:50:42The thing about enduring toys,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45you can add to them and it's what you invest in them.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48When you invest your imagination in them, that's what makes them endure.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Remember Gonks?
0:51:00 > 0:51:02Neither does anyone else.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Not every toy can be Meccano or Lego,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07still as popular now as the day it was launched.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09Some burn brightly for a year or two,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13before crashing to Earth in charity shops, car-boot sales and toy museums.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15These are the crazes.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Whatever that year's craze was, if you didn't have one,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22you might as well have gone to school dressed as one of the Von Trapps.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24They were must-have items - Hula Hoops, roller skates,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28Deely-boppers, Clackers, BMX bikes - and, in 1987,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32four little turtles named after Italian Renaissance artists.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Weird!
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Every year, the media would be full of horror stories about that year's craze -
0:51:37 > 0:51:40they were dangerous, antisocial, non-educational...
0:51:40 > 0:51:44But everyone knew what these stories really meant - they were brilliant.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Crazes come and go and I can't fathom why.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57I built the whole Troll village in the garden.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59They were just great.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02# Grab it to the east Grab it to the west
0:52:02 > 0:52:04# Grab it any place you like it best... #
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Cabbage Patch dolls.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I mean, for goodness' sake, what was all that about?
0:52:09 > 0:52:12But you had to have them because, already in the States,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15every child had to have one, well, of course we've all got to have them.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17ARCHIVE: It's caused angry scenes
0:52:17 > 0:52:22and injuries inside stores as customers join in buying stampedes.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Hold it! Hold it!
0:52:24 > 0:52:27What do we tell our little girl on Christmas morning?
0:52:27 > 0:52:30What are we supposed to say? You've been good, but Santa ran short?
0:52:33 > 0:52:34They marketed it brilliantly.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38They'd have the little doll heads surrounded by a cabbage leaf
0:52:38 > 0:52:42and, to a kid, it looked like a child was growing in a field.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Toys being successful is all about the right time,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54the right place, the right moment and the right mood.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57And sometimes a lovely toy can come out
0:52:57 > 0:53:01but it just doesn't quite hook into the feeling of the moment.
0:53:01 > 0:53:02It'll sit there for years
0:53:02 > 0:53:05and then suddenly someone will spot it again and say,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07"That's absolutely brilliant."
0:53:11 > 0:53:14It's almost like they can sit there dormant for a while
0:53:14 > 0:53:17and then the world around them makes them relevant
0:53:17 > 0:53:19and everyone goes, "Oh, there it is again."
0:53:19 > 0:53:22ARCHIVE: Remember the yo-yo?
0:53:22 > 0:53:27It certainly made a comeback at the Yo-yo World Championships recently in Mexico City.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31The yo-yo has a very long history.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35There are pictures of the yo-yo on ancient Greek vases, for instance.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41It actually becomes very popular in the 18th century,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43in France in particular,
0:53:43 > 0:53:48in the aristocratic level of society, including royalty.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53And when a lot of people had to leave France during the French Revolution and came to England,
0:53:53 > 0:53:55they brought the yo-yo with them.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59It also found its way down to the Philippines
0:53:59 > 0:54:01where a variant of it was used as a weapon.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07But people were also playing with it and an American chap called Duncan
0:54:07 > 0:54:10saw this and he thought it looked quite fun.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14So he actually brought it back to the States.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17The thing about the yo-yo in general is it's such a simple toy.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20Basically, it's some wood and string.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23It's very easy. You could even make your own.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27Solve the cube.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30It was the ultimate puzzle game.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34I got so frustrated that I was one of those kids that peeled all
0:54:34 > 0:54:35the stickers off and then put them
0:54:35 > 0:54:39back on in the order they should have been instead of trying
0:54:39 > 0:54:42to fiddle around with it and wasting my time doing this stupid thing.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Crazes like that have a certain uniqueness about them
0:54:46 > 0:54:51and there is something that just catches the imagination.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Just before going on air I set Hugh Scully problem,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59a problem tackled by millions of people every day
0:54:59 > 0:55:02with varying degrees of success.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04I was given one of these puzzles for Christmas
0:55:04 > 0:55:06and it has been driving me absolutely mad.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10Brainchild of Hungarian Professor Erno Rubik, it is rapidly assuming
0:55:10 > 0:55:12the status of a world cult.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16Rubik invented the cube to help his students at Budapest University
0:55:16 > 0:55:18to think in three dimensions.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22It is a very basic form, a very basic problem.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25I probably could still do it now if you gave it to me.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28I wasn't quick but I learned how to do it
0:55:28 > 0:55:30because I wasn't going to be beaten by it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:3225 seconds gone.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Think about how many hours of fun you have with a cube.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38If someone tossed a cube at you and said, "Work that out, mate,"
0:55:38 > 0:55:42days, weeks, you were sitting there going...
0:55:42 > 0:55:45This book has been one of the publishing sensations of the year.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47It is called You Can Do The Cube
0:55:47 > 0:55:50and has just become an American bestseller,
0:55:50 > 0:55:51number one, in fact.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55I thought it might sell 10,000 copies.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58But it's sold over a million, which came as a shock.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02One night I got a phone call, they said, "Congratulations."
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Just when you are about to finally crack the Rubik's Cube,
0:56:08 > 0:56:13well, you have done half of one side, nearly half, two squares,
0:56:13 > 0:56:15something terrible happens -
0:56:15 > 0:56:18you have to stop playing with your presents and eat lunch.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20Nothing wrong with that idea in principle.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Shove a bit of fuel in the tank. Keep you going for another 18 hours.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28But it is not just any lunch. It's the biggest lunch in the world.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34- # Do the turkey hop - Do the turkey hop
0:56:34 > 0:56:38- # When you start - You don't want to stop
0:56:38 > 0:56:42- # If you want to be slick - You'd better grab a chick
0:56:42 > 0:56:45- # Then do the turkey hop - And never stop. #
0:56:45 > 0:56:47What is it all about?
0:56:47 > 0:56:49The average person eats 6,000 calories
0:56:49 > 0:56:54on Christmas Day. Three days' allocation of food in one day.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56What?!
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Christmas dinner - I must have been three and a half stone in weight
0:56:59 > 0:57:02but I sat there until I could not move.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04I would eat everything.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07Overcooked dry turkey, loads of roast potatoes,
0:57:07 > 0:57:11parsnips, cauliflower, cabbage, sausages in bacon,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13and loads of stuffing.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18Christmas pudding that nobody really likes. It is always the same.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20And then a great big hunk of bird carcass
0:57:20 > 0:57:23that you have to pick at for the next two days.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25Nothing has changed at all.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28People have always saved their money for the best
0:57:28 > 0:57:30they could possibly get at Christmas.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Certain foods become associated with that very early on,
0:57:34 > 0:57:35largely due to price.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38If you were to look in a medieval kitchen at Christmas
0:57:38 > 0:57:43they would be using the raisins, dates, figs, spices,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46which we still use as Christmas food.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49All that mince pie, Christmas pudding sort of flavours.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52Mince pies are a superb invention.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Probably one of the West's greatest inventions since the motor car.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59You have got light, buttery, flaky pastry and sweet mincemeat inside.
0:57:59 > 0:58:00What is not to like?
0:58:00 > 0:58:05It is in a handy, one-size mouthful if you are so inclined,
0:58:05 > 0:58:07but at the most two or three.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10You can go in the kitchen, nick one and no-one will ever know.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17My mother used to make everything herself. Christmas pudding,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21Christmas cake, and a thing peculiar in Scotland called a black bun.
0:58:21 > 0:58:25I remember my mother doing absolutely everything.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28Laying the table, doing all the preparation,
0:58:28 > 0:58:31and I'm afraid doing the clearing up with very little help.
0:58:31 > 0:58:36We used to have a big joint of ham, this is really weird, for breakfast.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39And pickles.
0:58:39 > 0:58:42Then at lunch we would have the full-monty blowout.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Lovely turkey which my mum would always slightly overcook.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48That's how we like our food - slightly overcooked.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51My mother put the turkey on at nine o'clock the night before.
0:58:51 > 0:58:55Can you believe that? What was she trying to do? Make a pair of shoes?
0:58:55 > 0:58:57# Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle. #
0:58:57 > 0:58:58Doing a Christmas lunch
0:58:58 > 0:59:02for many more people than you would normally cook for is really hard.
0:59:02 > 0:59:06You try plating up 8, 10, 12, 14 dishes.
0:59:06 > 0:59:08You're not caterers.
0:59:08 > 0:59:09You're people at home.
0:59:09 > 0:59:12You're not supposed to be able to do this. It's stressful.
0:59:12 > 0:59:14You want everybody to have a good time,
0:59:14 > 0:59:16but the person not having a good time is you.
0:59:16 > 0:59:18When I had my family coming round, I'd opened all the presents,
0:59:18 > 0:59:21I thought, "Give me a tin of Quality Street,
0:59:21 > 0:59:24"stick some James Bond on, I want to lay on the sofa." No.
0:59:24 > 0:59:28It's this mammoth cooking task. My mother's in the kitchen,
0:59:28 > 0:59:30along with my father,
0:59:30 > 0:59:34all these pots and pans are going, and then you sit down as a family,
0:59:34 > 0:59:37and you have your Christmas dinner.
0:59:39 > 0:59:41One Christmas, I remember my dad
0:59:41 > 0:59:45wanting everybody to sit around the same table.
0:59:45 > 0:59:49So what he did was he knocked down the wall
0:59:49 > 0:59:53that divided the living room and the dining room,
0:59:53 > 0:59:59and then put one huge table through the middle of the wall, you know,
0:59:59 > 1:00:02so we could all sit together.
1:00:02 > 1:00:06It was wonderful, it was one of the best Christmases we had.
1:00:06 > 1:00:09And after Christmas he bricked up the wall again!
1:00:09 > 1:00:12- And Christmas crackers.- Oh, yeah.
1:00:12 > 1:00:16- That was sometimes the best thing about Christmas dinner.- Yeah.
1:00:16 > 1:00:19The hats were annoying, they were always too big for me.
1:00:19 > 1:00:24I was eating my dinner, and it was slipping down my face.
1:00:24 > 1:00:27Sticking a fork through a paper hat - it doesn't work!
1:00:27 > 1:00:31# Christmas pudding Listen to the sleigh bells ring
1:00:31 > 1:00:35# Christmas pudding Surely is the thing... #
1:00:35 > 1:00:37Always a Christmas pudding
1:00:37 > 1:00:40with a sixpence inside, that someone was going to get,
1:00:40 > 1:00:43and with three children, there was always a fight
1:00:43 > 1:00:47who was going to get the sixpence.
1:00:47 > 1:00:50Anybody at Christmas going for a slice of cake and a cup of tea
1:00:50 > 1:00:54is a wuss - by tea-time, you should be on the hard spirits.
1:00:54 > 1:00:57As I've got older, I have got into all the things you're supposed to
1:00:57 > 1:00:59like about Christmas - long walks, furry jumpers,
1:00:59 > 1:01:02baked potatoes, small glasses of Aberlour.
1:01:02 > 1:01:05- Asti Spumante!- Asti Spumante!
1:01:05 > 1:01:09It was brilliant! "Would you like a little bit, son?" "Oh, yes, please."
1:01:09 > 1:01:12And what was great, there was always little bits left, so I'd go,
1:01:12 > 1:01:16"I'll clear the table." On the way to the kitchen, I'd be...
1:01:17 > 1:01:20Just out of badness! It was great.
1:01:20 > 1:01:22# Have a holly, jolly Christmas... #
1:01:22 > 1:01:24We did look forward to all these meals.
1:01:24 > 1:01:27You were very, very stuffed by the end of the week.
1:01:27 > 1:01:30It stretched over to New Year's Day,
1:01:30 > 1:01:34and then, boom, life became grey again, but for just that week,
1:01:34 > 1:01:37it was very red and very rosy.
1:01:37 > 1:01:40# Oh, by golly Have a holly jolly Christmas
1:01:40 > 1:01:42# This year! #
1:01:51 > 1:01:54Finally, six hours later, lunch is over.
1:01:54 > 1:01:57The survivors are carried out on makeshift stretchers
1:01:57 > 1:02:00and given emergency resus. For the children of Britain,
1:02:00 > 1:02:04it's time to gather round the TV and shout, "I want one of those!"
1:02:07 > 1:02:11Television introduced different things to children
1:02:11 > 1:02:15that they wouldn't have seen if they didn't go in the shops.
1:02:15 > 1:02:19Sooty and Muffin, they were marketed for children -
1:02:19 > 1:02:23that's perhaps the first consumer thing I remember.
1:02:23 > 1:02:26Muffin was from the early days of television.
1:02:26 > 1:02:30There weren't that many programmes, full stop, but there weren't
1:02:30 > 1:02:33that many programmes for children on television,
1:02:33 > 1:02:37so when Muffin was on, the younger children really loved him.
1:02:37 > 1:02:42And, of course, then they started producing the toys.
1:02:42 > 1:02:45You get the character merchandise bit starting up.
1:02:45 > 1:02:50A company called Moko made the very famous metal Muffin puppet,
1:02:50 > 1:02:54that children could play with themselves.
1:02:54 > 1:02:57That's one thing I did want, this metal Muffin the Mule,
1:02:57 > 1:03:01with the strings that made it dance, just like on television.
1:03:01 > 1:03:03Television was a massive influence.
1:03:10 > 1:03:13My goodness me, there's Father Christmas himself,
1:03:13 > 1:03:17with his red cloak and his white beard, riding on a sleigh!
1:03:19 > 1:03:22Oh, Muffin, of course, it's Muffin the Mule...!
1:03:22 > 1:03:27Muffin the Mule is probably the first star of children's television.
1:03:27 > 1:03:30He appeared in a programme along with Annette Mills,
1:03:30 > 1:03:32who was a singer-actress.
1:03:32 > 1:03:34This is Muffin's Christmas party, you know.
1:03:34 > 1:03:38Muffin, I just wiped it! Come along...
1:03:38 > 1:03:41We all called her Annie.
1:03:41 > 1:03:44She was always the star of television to me.
1:03:44 > 1:03:47She was a sort of fairytale character -
1:03:47 > 1:03:50beautiful dresses, rustle of silk,
1:03:50 > 1:03:53gorgeous big collars and petticoats.
1:03:53 > 1:03:56She was around and about,
1:03:56 > 1:03:59but I was too tiny to really take notice.
1:03:59 > 1:04:03I remember a pretty lady sitting at the piano, playing the tunes
1:04:03 > 1:04:06from the Muffin the Mule show,
1:04:06 > 1:04:08and her petticoats rustled!
1:04:08 > 1:04:10# We want Muffin Muffin the Mule... #
1:04:10 > 1:04:15# We want Muffin, Muffin the Mule
1:04:15 > 1:04:19# Dear old Muffin Playing the fool... #
1:04:19 > 1:04:22There was none of this, hide the strings and pretend.
1:04:22 > 1:04:26She sat there on the chair and the strings went down,
1:04:26 > 1:04:28and Muffin would go clickety-clacking along.
1:04:28 > 1:04:29Muffin!
1:04:29 > 1:04:34I've got an attic full of fan letters from people asking Muffin
1:04:34 > 1:04:38to solve their problems, and who absolutely loved him
1:04:38 > 1:04:42and wondered what he got up to when he wasn't dancing on the piano.
1:04:42 > 1:04:46- NEWSREEL:- 'This television star was made of plywood and felt,
1:04:46 > 1:04:49'and through him, Annette Mills reached the hearts
1:04:49 > 1:04:52'of countless children and grown-ups.'
1:04:52 > 1:04:53The advent of television
1:04:53 > 1:04:55changed absolutely everything,
1:04:55 > 1:04:58because it was the beginning of the consumer age.
1:05:00 > 1:05:06Television made toys much more glamorous than they actually were.
1:05:06 > 1:05:10It built a story, very professionally, around the toy.
1:05:10 > 1:05:14It made the thing itself much more exciting.
1:05:14 > 1:05:17You all had to have the Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man doll,
1:05:17 > 1:05:21which, you looked through his eye, and he had an arm...
1:05:21 > 1:05:26You pressed his back, and because he was strong, he would do that,
1:05:26 > 1:05:30and lift it up, and that was the height of cool, we had to have one.
1:05:30 > 1:05:33It was getting a toy of something that was a cartoon series,
1:05:33 > 1:05:35like Transformers.
1:05:35 > 1:05:37You saw them as cartoons,
1:05:37 > 1:05:41so to actually be able to touch and handle them was great!
1:05:43 > 1:05:46Wait, Dad's saying something. He's had what?
1:05:46 > 1:05:50An idea? Oh, this always ends badly.
1:05:50 > 1:05:53And today he's had his Christmas idea -
1:05:53 > 1:05:55he wants to go for a walk.
1:05:55 > 1:05:57No-o-o...!
1:05:57 > 1:05:59ICY WIND BLOWS
1:05:59 > 1:06:04After an hour or so of this foolishness, Dad is satisfied,
1:06:04 > 1:06:06and you're allowed back indoors - once your hands have thawed,
1:06:06 > 1:06:09you can play with some of the things that come in boxes.
1:06:20 > 1:06:24My mother was brought up during the roaring '20s in the States.
1:06:24 > 1:06:28She still danced the Charleston till the day she died.
1:06:28 > 1:06:31She smoked, when women just didn't smoke.
1:06:31 > 1:06:33She was a game gal!
1:06:34 > 1:06:37Her parents sent her over to Paris to study art.
1:06:37 > 1:06:41She ended up as a graphic designer, which stood her in good stead
1:06:41 > 1:06:43in designing Fuzzy Felt.
1:06:43 > 1:06:47My parents came back to live in Farnham Common,
1:06:47 > 1:06:49where my parents bought a house.
1:06:49 > 1:06:53My father went off to war, and my mother was left with a large garden
1:06:53 > 1:06:55that had a lot of outbuildings,
1:06:55 > 1:06:58and she decided to do something for the war effort.
1:06:58 > 1:07:02She approached Coopers Mechanical Joints in Slough,
1:07:02 > 1:07:04and started making gaskets.
1:07:04 > 1:07:09She employed the local women to come in and help her.
1:07:09 > 1:07:12The women, by and large, had young children,
1:07:12 > 1:07:14so my mother set up a creche.
1:07:14 > 1:07:18She found out that cut, felt shapes stuck to the back of a table mat
1:07:18 > 1:07:21would keep the children amused - and out came Fuzzy Felt.
1:07:23 > 1:07:26I grew up in the '40s and '50s,
1:07:26 > 1:07:31and I think toys that took a long time to create
1:07:31 > 1:07:35were really important, because there was a lot of time to fill,
1:07:35 > 1:07:38because you didn't have a lot of things.
1:07:38 > 1:07:43My mother designed everything, all the way down to the lettering.
1:07:43 > 1:07:48She was very, very particular in having things absolutely just right.
1:07:48 > 1:07:52She wouldn't bring a product to market unless she was happy
1:07:52 > 1:07:56that the child could make a really good number of pictures
1:07:56 > 1:07:59without running out of ideas.
1:07:59 > 1:08:04I loved toys where you could build from nothing into something.
1:08:04 > 1:08:09On a plain board, you could build a garden full of colour.
1:08:13 > 1:08:17And then you could actually build a little girl or a little boy.
1:08:17 > 1:08:21We had the most magical working relationship.
1:08:21 > 1:08:25I ran the factory, she did the designing.
1:08:25 > 1:08:29I had to call her by her Christian name from an early age.
1:08:29 > 1:08:33At trade shows, you can't really say, "Mummy, what do you think of this?"
1:08:33 > 1:08:36So I called her by her name, Lois.
1:08:36 > 1:08:41The only time I really used the word Mummy was at Christmas,
1:08:41 > 1:08:43on a present or something.
1:08:44 > 1:08:48Spirograph was the hallucinogenics for the under-10s.
1:08:48 > 1:08:52While our parents were getting battered on sherry and port,
1:08:52 > 1:08:56we were getting high as kites making these endless swirly patterns -
1:08:56 > 1:09:00round and round and round and round and round and round
1:09:00 > 1:09:04and round and round and round and round.
1:09:04 > 1:09:06HE MOUTHS
1:09:06 > 1:09:08And round and round...
1:09:08 > 1:09:11and round and round and round and round.
1:09:16 > 1:09:19Spirograph was
1:09:19 > 1:09:23an invention by my father that enabled children
1:09:23 > 1:09:25to draw patterns
1:09:25 > 1:09:28that had a wonderful symmetry, texture and colour
1:09:28 > 1:09:33very simply, just by using a pen, and a cog round a wheel.
1:09:33 > 1:09:35At first, you just do a pattern
1:09:35 > 1:09:38but then you realise you can go outside the big circle
1:09:38 > 1:09:40and build up matrixes of stuff.
1:09:40 > 1:09:44You could make thousands of different types of patterns
1:09:44 > 1:09:49so I'd spend hours doing these then I'd plaster them over the walls.
1:09:49 > 1:09:53- ARCHIVE:- Perhaps this new toy is one of the few completely original toys of the century.
1:09:53 > 1:09:57It was designed by an engineer, not a toy manufacturer.
1:09:57 > 1:10:01With these wheels, a child may teach himself more economically
1:10:01 > 1:10:05the real meaning of mathematical relationships.
1:10:05 > 1:10:10These patterns can give an insight into the orbits of space capsules or satellites.
1:10:10 > 1:10:13In the 1960s, so many things seemed to be going on,
1:10:13 > 1:10:16all the boundaries seemed to be coming down,
1:10:16 > 1:10:18politically, economically or whatever.
1:10:18 > 1:10:21In effect, if you had an idea, you could run with it.
1:10:24 > 1:10:28Dennis Fisher studied the design of a pound note.
1:10:28 > 1:10:31He thought its intricate patterns were made by a simple gearing mechanism
1:10:31 > 1:10:35There and then, he decided to make a pattern-drawing toy
1:10:35 > 1:10:37based on that principle.
1:10:37 > 1:10:42His problem - how to translate algebraic formulae into shapes.
1:10:42 > 1:10:45My father had always been fascinated
1:10:45 > 1:10:49throughout his life with mathematics.
1:10:49 > 1:10:52He enjoyed the magic of numbers.
1:10:54 > 1:10:59Music was an integral element within his creative process.
1:11:03 > 1:11:06He was very knowledgeable about the engineering of plastic
1:11:06 > 1:11:10so he was involved in the first prototype.
1:11:10 > 1:11:13Then he had to go out and sell the idea.
1:11:14 > 1:11:17Everything was staked on it. His Rollei camera was sold.
1:11:17 > 1:11:18My mother sold her jewellery.
1:11:18 > 1:11:21His dark room was dismantled and that equipment sold off.
1:11:21 > 1:11:26My first job ever was, at the age of 15, to demonstrate Spirograph,
1:11:26 > 1:11:31Christmas 1965 at Matthias Robinson department store in Leeds.
1:11:31 > 1:11:34I wasn't too far away from Santa's grotto.
1:11:34 > 1:11:37I had a table and I'd be busy drawing away
1:11:37 > 1:11:41and feeling alternately chuffed with what I was achieving
1:11:41 > 1:11:46and a bit embarrassed if the pattern didn't go exactly as I'd wanted.
1:11:49 > 1:11:52A lot of children over the world
1:11:52 > 1:11:56have had a great deal of pleasure from using Spirograph.
1:11:56 > 1:11:57For some of them,
1:11:57 > 1:12:01it may have been a springboard to develop an artistic career
1:12:01 > 1:12:05or a mathematical career or maybe an engineering career.
1:12:05 > 1:12:11I brought down the first production set ever made of Spirograph
1:12:11 > 1:12:14and on the back there is a little message I'd like to read, if I may.
1:12:14 > 1:12:19It says, "The first set to be presented in the world
1:12:19 > 1:12:24"to my very dearest wife, fellow director and friend Betty.
1:12:24 > 1:12:28"Dennis, 1964, Christmas morning."
1:12:34 > 1:12:39If you're lucky, Santa's brought you a new board game.
1:12:39 > 1:12:43Look at it - a promise of hours of laughter, thrills and entertainment.
1:12:43 > 1:12:45You unfold the board,
1:12:45 > 1:12:47get all the little pieces out of their plastic bags,
1:12:47 > 1:12:49shuffle the cards
1:12:49 > 1:12:51and then, there it is.
1:12:51 > 1:12:53The rule book.
1:12:53 > 1:12:58It lands with an audible thud and you feel the icy hand of reality gripping your shoulder.
1:12:58 > 1:13:03Maybe it's in 16 languages? Nope - just English.
1:13:03 > 1:13:08This is going to be about as much light-hearted fun as trying to land a 747 on one engine.
1:13:08 > 1:13:10On a motorway. In thick fog.
1:13:10 > 1:13:13But you're not going to back down now,
1:13:13 > 1:13:14not in front of the whole family.
1:13:14 > 1:13:18You're going to enjoy the next five hours if it kills you.
1:13:18 > 1:13:20Right - roll a double six to start.
1:13:20 > 1:13:26What kind of sadistic mind made that the very first rule?
1:13:26 > 1:13:28Damn you, Waddingtons!
1:13:29 > 1:13:3440 minutes later, someone rolls a double six...and we're off.
1:13:39 > 1:13:42Parlour games are really good at emphasising two things -
1:13:42 > 1:13:45family togetherness but, at the same time,
1:13:45 > 1:13:48that slightly what we might think of
1:13:48 > 1:13:51as a safe way of letting out dangerous passions.
1:13:51 > 1:13:54The youngest can be more powerful than the eldest.
1:13:56 > 1:14:00Christmas, particularly, was spent playing board games.
1:14:00 > 1:14:04We actually didn't have a television for a long, long time
1:14:04 > 1:14:07so it was, "Bring out the games."
1:14:07 > 1:14:12Lots of laughter, lots of buzziness and maybe lots of fights as well.
1:14:12 > 1:14:14# So you win again
1:14:14 > 1:14:17# You win again... #
1:14:17 > 1:14:20I always played to win.
1:14:20 > 1:14:23If I thought I wasn't going to win,
1:14:23 > 1:14:25I could turn into the most negative of players.
1:14:25 > 1:14:30I'm ashamed of myself. Arlene, you're a bad board-game player.
1:14:32 > 1:14:35For most of us, it's an escape into a dream world of property deals,
1:14:35 > 1:14:38big business and takeover bids.
1:14:38 > 1:14:42The most popular board game in the world - Monopoly.
1:14:42 > 1:14:44MUSIC: "Money" by Pink Floyd
1:14:46 > 1:14:49Monopoly, to me, was the big-time.
1:14:51 > 1:14:55I'd never been to Bond Street. I didn't know where Mayfair was.
1:14:55 > 1:15:00I knew Fleet Street was where they printed newspapers.
1:15:00 > 1:15:02For me, it was like a big adventure.
1:15:02 > 1:15:05Monopoly is actually a really geeky,
1:15:05 > 1:15:08odd thing for children to like and they can't possibly understand it.
1:15:08 > 1:15:11I realise now I used to play it without understanding any of it.
1:15:11 > 1:15:14"Annuity matures" and things like that on the chance cards.
1:15:16 > 1:15:21At the start of the game, you'd get a certain amount of money,
1:15:21 > 1:15:25which, obviously, I didn't have when I was a kid, so I had money in my hand.
1:15:25 > 1:15:29I could choose to buy what I wanted to. I had choice, I had freedom.
1:15:29 > 1:15:31I was a businessman.
1:15:36 > 1:15:38I took it so seriously.
1:15:38 > 1:15:40The worst thing you could ever say to me was, "I give up."
1:15:40 > 1:15:43No, I wanted you out of your house.
1:15:44 > 1:15:47The history of Monopoly goes back to the early 20th century.
1:15:50 > 1:15:53It's based on a game called the Landlord's Game,
1:15:53 > 1:15:58which was conceived by a lady called Lizzie Magie, who was a Quaker.
1:15:59 > 1:16:00At that time in America,
1:16:00 > 1:16:05there was a movement to create a new tax for landowners
1:16:05 > 1:16:09because it was seen that a lot of people who rented land were losing out
1:16:09 > 1:16:12and the landowners were just getting rich and fat.
1:16:13 > 1:16:17Charles Darrow, who's the man credited with inventing Monopoly,
1:16:17 > 1:16:22came across a version of this game and created his own version.
1:16:22 > 1:16:25His board used the streets in Atlantic City
1:16:25 > 1:16:27where he used to go on holiday.
1:16:29 > 1:16:33Monopoly now - he who wins everything, wins the game.
1:16:33 > 1:16:36That wasn't the original idea at all.
1:16:37 > 1:16:41We bought a new Monopoly set last Christmas
1:16:41 > 1:16:45but it's one of those where there's no money any more.
1:16:45 > 1:16:49You get a credit card and the banker has a card reader
1:16:49 > 1:16:51and he swipes your card.
1:16:51 > 1:16:55- "Pass go, collect £200."- Does he?! - Yeah, we've got it at home.
1:16:55 > 1:16:59It's exactly the same but it has moved with the times a little bit.
1:17:05 > 1:17:06Oh! It's nearly over.
1:17:06 > 1:17:09Tomorrow is Boxing Day, the worst day of the year.
1:17:09 > 1:17:11364 days till Christmas.
1:17:11 > 1:17:14Let's finish with some excitement - go out with a bang.
1:17:14 > 1:17:18The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab -
1:17:18 > 1:17:22the one with little samples of actual uranium in it.
1:17:22 > 1:17:24Yeah - let's play with that(!)
1:17:24 > 1:17:26You just fire up the reactor and hope for the best.
1:17:29 > 1:17:31If all that seems a bit brutal,
1:17:31 > 1:17:33maybe you just need something to cuddle.
1:17:33 > 1:17:36In Victorian Britain, cuddling was simply not done.
1:17:36 > 1:17:37Anyone caught having a cuddle
1:17:37 > 1:17:41would immediately be transported to Australia, on the orders of Queen Victoria.
1:17:41 > 1:17:44But as soon as the old misery died in 1901,
1:17:44 > 1:17:46cuddling came out of the closet.
1:17:46 > 1:17:48We weren't quite ready to cuddle each other -
1:17:48 > 1:17:51that sort of thing didn't happen till the '60s -
1:17:51 > 1:17:55so we turned for the answer to the cuddliest nation on Earth - Germany.
1:17:55 > 1:17:57The first teddy bear was made by Steiff
1:17:57 > 1:18:02and named after President Teddy Roosevelt, who had refused to shoot one on a hunting trip.
1:18:02 > 1:18:05History does not record whether or not he cuddled it.
1:18:05 > 1:18:10But cuddling was on - and a whole new world of toys was born.
1:18:14 > 1:18:19Post war, when things were hard to come by, people made do
1:18:19 > 1:18:24and these toys - this was mine, this was my brother Peter's -
1:18:24 > 1:18:26were made from the same raincoat.
1:18:26 > 1:18:31The elephant was made from the outside, the gabardine part,
1:18:31 > 1:18:34and my teddy was made from the lining.
1:18:35 > 1:18:39Put together specially for me, he's unique.
1:18:39 > 1:18:43I wouldn't have another teddy with lots of fur or anything.
1:18:43 > 1:18:47I think he's perfect. Absolutely perfect.
1:19:09 > 1:19:14The teddy bear as a toy was first produced in Germany.
1:19:14 > 1:19:20The famous Steiff company, which was started by Margaret Steiff in the 19th century.
1:19:20 > 1:19:24But it wasn't called a teddy bear at that time.
1:19:25 > 1:19:28In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt,
1:19:28 > 1:19:32the President of the United States, went out shooting for bears.
1:19:33 > 1:19:36The story goes that Roosevelt - he was known as Teddy -
1:19:36 > 1:19:40couldn't find any bears so some people captured a little bear cub
1:19:40 > 1:19:45and brought it to him and said, "Here's a bear cub you can shoot."
1:19:45 > 1:19:49He looked at it and said, "I'm not going to shoot that."
1:19:49 > 1:19:53This little bear cub was then featured in a cartoon
1:19:53 > 1:19:57and from then on became associated with Teddy Roosevelt.
1:19:57 > 1:20:01At that stage, there was a toy buyer from one of the big stores in New York
1:20:01 > 1:20:04who went to the Leipzig Fair in Germany,
1:20:04 > 1:20:06which was the big toy fair.
1:20:06 > 1:20:11On the Steiff stand was a bear, a soft toy bear.
1:20:11 > 1:20:13He bought 500.
1:20:13 > 1:20:17Then the association between the soft toy bear and the real bear and the name Teddy came about
1:20:17 > 1:20:20and gradually people started calling it teddy bear.
1:20:22 > 1:20:25The teddy bear has definitely become one of the most popular
1:20:25 > 1:20:27and iconic toys of childhood.
1:20:27 > 1:20:32There's that instant love of something soft and cuddly.
1:20:32 > 1:20:35You could hug it and it became your friend.
1:20:35 > 1:20:39This is Robert. Or Bob the Bear, we used to call him.
1:20:39 > 1:20:42Look at him - he's patched up, really solid, not cosy at all.
1:20:42 > 1:20:44But, being a lonely kid,
1:20:44 > 1:20:48I used to have to have a mate and he was my mate.
1:20:48 > 1:20:50I did have a bit of a collection
1:20:50 > 1:20:55but there was always one bear that was slightly more in my favour.
1:20:55 > 1:20:57We used to have arguments.
1:20:58 > 1:21:01He was quite an aggressive little bear.
1:21:01 > 1:21:03But, anyway, we're friends now.
1:21:04 > 1:21:08Finally, you've hit the wall. It's bedtime.
1:21:08 > 1:21:12Naturally, you take your absolutely favourite toy of the day to bed with you.
1:21:12 > 1:21:15You might wake up on Boxing Day cuddling your fluffy new teddy
1:21:15 > 1:21:19or you might have your Transformers Dark of the Moon Voyager Megatron
1:21:19 > 1:21:21imprinted on your face till lunchtime.
1:21:21 > 1:21:25It doesn't matter because, when it comes to toys, it's up to you.
1:21:25 > 1:21:27There are no rules. Forget the instructions.
1:21:27 > 1:21:30The only limits are your imagination, your attention span
1:21:30 > 1:21:34and the stress-resistant properties of polyvinyl chloride.
1:21:34 > 1:21:37A great toy can be made of anything - plastic, wood, cardboard,
1:21:37 > 1:21:40metal, uranium... All right, maybe not uranium.
1:21:40 > 1:21:43When you're a kid, it doesn't matter.
1:21:43 > 1:21:45Because toys aren't just inanimate objects.
1:21:45 > 1:21:48The minute you stop playing with them, they cease to exist.
1:21:48 > 1:21:53But get your Action Man, or your Fuzzy Felt or your Lego out of the box and time stands still.
1:21:55 > 1:21:59The grown-up world of rules and responsibilities holds its breath.
1:21:59 > 1:22:04Toys are who we were before all that stuff got into our heads
1:22:04 > 1:22:08and diluted the vivid joy of just being alive.
1:22:08 > 1:22:10It's still there, though.
1:22:10 > 1:22:12Somewhere in a cupboard at the back of your memory.
1:22:12 > 1:22:17It never goes away - that moment when you open the present and, yes!
1:22:17 > 1:22:21You got it! It's yours for ever. Enjoy it.
1:22:23 > 1:22:25# Here comes Santa Claus Here comes Santa Claus
1:22:25 > 1:22:28# Right down Santa Claus Lane
1:22:28 > 1:22:30# Vixen and Blitzen And all his reindeer... #
1:22:30 > 1:22:32Oh, my God.
1:22:32 > 1:22:35# ..Bells are ringing Children singing... #
1:22:35 > 1:22:36Wow!
1:22:38 > 1:22:40Du...
1:22:41 > 1:22:45Where did you get it? Where did you find one?
1:22:48 > 1:22:5260th anniversary of Fuzzy Felt. Almost the same age as me.
1:22:52 > 1:22:55I have really never had one in my whole life.
1:22:55 > 1:22:59She's even got a special extra hairclip.
1:22:59 > 1:23:01You've given me,
1:23:01 > 1:23:07at the age of 45, my first-ever remote-controlled sports car.
1:23:07 > 1:23:10That does honestly make my Christmas.
1:23:10 > 1:23:12# Here comes Santa Claus
1:23:12 > 1:23:14# Right down Santa Claus Lane
1:23:14 > 1:23:16# He doesn't care if you're rich or poor
1:23:16 > 1:23:20# He loves you just the same
1:23:20 > 1:23:22# Santa knows that we're God's children
1:23:22 > 1:23:25# That makes everything right
1:23:25 > 1:23:27# Fill your hearts with a Christmas cheer
1:23:27 > 1:23:30# Cos Santa Claus comes tonight... #
1:23:51 > 1:23:52# Here comes Santa Claus
1:23:52 > 1:23:53# Here comes Santa Claus
1:23:53 > 1:23:56# Right down Santa Claus Lane
1:23:56 > 1:23:58# He'll come around When the chimes rings out
1:23:58 > 1:24:01# It's Christmas morn again
1:24:01 > 1:24:03# Peace on Earth will come to all
1:24:03 > 1:24:06# If we just follow the light
1:24:06 > 1:24:08# Fill your hearts with a Christmas cheer
1:24:08 > 1:24:11# Cos Santa Claus comes tonight. #