Stoppit and Tidyup

Another delight of children's tv of the 1980s. Chances are, anyone who can remember Trapdoor, Count Duckula and What-a-Mess can remember this one.

My memory of the plotlines is somewhat sketchy (or, um, nonexistent), but it had a series of characters named after the kind of commands a mother would give. Tidyup was a big purple thing with blue hair, a tie and an amiable grin, which moved slowly. Stoppit, by contrast, looked like an electrocuted red pom-pom and bounced. It also had the two bees, BeeHave and BeeQuiet. An early example of subliminal messages?

Apart from Stoppit and Tidyup, the other characters in The Land Of Do As You're Told were:

• Hurry Up,
• Not Now,
• Calm Down
• Take Care,
• Eat Your Greens,
• Say Please And Thankyou,
• Don't Do That,
• Go And Play (with your favourite toy),
• Comb Your Hair,
• Wash Your Face,
• Clean Your Teeth,
• Beehave and Beequiet,
• Go To Bed,
• and the big, bad, I Said No!

The stories also featured tales of the Naughties and the Sit Downs. Each episode centred on Stoppit and Tidyup's encounters with one of the other characters.

Fondly remembered for me because Stoppit lived in the dump (he was a scruffy little tyke), Tidyup had a penchant for Gherkin sandwiches and because the felt-tip style it shared with Rhubarb and Custard meant that any kid could learn to draw the characters.

Watch out for the Naughties! They give you Naughtypox!