En annan källa hittade svaret. Jag var ute av ett decennium, och jag hade misslyckat paraplykråken, men det heter Oscar (där jag fick märket Australiensiskt namn från jag inte vet).
The above picture is one of my most vivid early memories of TV, Oscar. It was a short ITV programme in the Black Theatre style: puppetry in which the operators were clad head to toe in black velvet, against a backdrop of same. This allowed them greater control of operation than was available with stringed marionettes or traditional “hide behind the table” glove puppetry, giving the performances more precision and grace. There was also something else, though, a strange quality to do with the apparent weightlessness of the characters and the odd luminosity that came from the use of ultra-violet lights. It was this unworldliness that made Oscar so mesmerising. For a few years either side of 1980, Black Theatre was all over kids' TV, working its dreamlike magic via the skilled hands of a variety of practitioners.
You can't do that on T.V. anymore, Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!
