Rentaghost

'Rentaghost' was a children's comedy series by Bob Block, who also wrote the equally bizarre 'Pardon My Genie' and 'Robert's Robots'. It concerned an employment agency, run and staffed by three ghosts - trendy Fred Mumford, Victorian Hubert Davenport and jester Timothy Claypole. All used to 'teleport' by pinching their noses! Their landlord, and frequent victim, was Mr.Meaker. Each week, the Rentaghost gang would try their hand at something new - a taxi service, furniture removals, or entertaining hospital patients - usually with disastrous results. Mr.Claypole was always misinterpreting instructions - once, when asked to help Fred's parents move house - he did exactly that. Another story had Mr.Meaker turn into a budgie, and in yet another, his wife became a cocker spaniel. Whenever the doorbell rang, she barked! Fred's parents didn't know their son was dead - he was killed whilst working abroad - hence on home visits, he had to throw Mother's dinners away ( ghosts don't eat ). All very silly, but done with great panache. And it had one of the greatest theme tunes ever!

The only kids' programme to make me giggle, so I am amazed that there are only 10 reviews. The antics didnt seem silly to me, even when I was 15 years old.

At 33 years of age I remember the early series as well as the later, and the opening bars of that bloody programme filled me with dread as my best friend always had to rush in from playing outdoors to see the damn thing with me in toe. Not the most fun 30 minutes of my young life waiting to get back outside. Now - Ulysses, that was something much better. "Flying through all the galaxies..."

One of the overiding memories of my childhood was watching Rentaghost in the afternoon. The early episodes are the best and were actually quite intelligent. Sadly, but inevitably, it eventually just became trashy rubbish with the most ridiculous plots played as pure slapstick .(Luckily, by then, I had grown out of kid's TV so my memories remain untainted).

I just caught an episode on satellite as my young son was watching it (yes - I do feel old!!)and it made me realise how innocent it was to be a child in the 70's. Kid's TV now is so cynical and all about merchandising and product placement. Today's generation will never have the same warm nostalgia about 'Pokemon' or 'Batman of the Future' that my peers have about 'Rentaghost' and it's contemporaries.

"Ooooh Arthur! What are those lunatics The Meekers up to now?"

Aaahhh, *the* tv show of my childhood. Frequently pantomimonic, the antics of Claypole and the cast of (flippin') spooks amused me for a sizeable chunk of my childhood. The early episodes had actual plot and purpose with the profitless Rentaghost business, the later ones were low on quantity with the Spooks living with the Meekers. Christmas cracker joke scripts, a pantomime horse, Christopher Biggins acting more camp than a weekend at Butlins and an unhealthy dose of bluescreen effects with every episode leading to an all-cast chase around the Meekers' living room table as the theme tune played every week.

Harmless fun for the children of the 70s in the days before childrens television had to be educational and lost any creativity it ever had. Gone are the days of sit-coms for kids, but the spirit (ahem) is kept alive in "Rentaghost's" occasional repeats tucked away in the armpit of satellite television.

A classic. No question. Well, you must excuse me, the astral lift is waiting to whisk me away!

"Come away from the window, Rose....."