Come Outside

I have had the pleasure recently to sit and watch a classic programme from my childhood: Come Outside, with Aunt Mabel and Pippin the dog.

*This blog post is a bit of fun, and I truly love this show*

Now, growing up I remember this programme being quite educational, even watching the odd episode as part of the teaching aide at my Primary school. William, now 2 and a half, absolutely loves it and will often request to watch a specific episode. But Strangely it is not what I remember at all!! And after sitting through an awful lot of these episodes I have to admit that I have gone off the series, not because of excessive watching either, but due to the fact that I have several issues with Aunt Mabel, played by Lynda Baron.

Why hasn't anyone stopped her, STOPPED IN HER TRACKS!

Now, for you who read this who do not know of the show, here is a brief outline of it with a few added facts:

Come Outside is a BBC educational children's television series that ran from 23 September 1993 to 18 March 1997. The two main characters of the show are Auntie Mabel (played by Lynda Baron of Open All Hours), and her dog Pippin. They go on adventures in Auntie Mabel's aeroplane, which is covered in coloured spots. Pippin was a mixed breed dog, possibly part Tibetan Terrier, roughly third generation descended from the famous American acting dog Benji and was owned and trained by Ann Head.

There were two dogs who played Pippin and although the first one died in 2008 (RIP Pippin #1) the second dog to play Pippin, although now in retirement played the Bakers biscuits dog, in the advert and is still pictured to this day as it's main dog!

The general concept of the show was to find out how things worked or how things were made, at which point Auntie Mabel would shout "Pippin it's time to fly" and off they would go in their plane on their adventures.

OK, so I am hoping that those among you that didn't know of the show will be caught up with the general idea and concept.


So here is the bit that made me go why hasn't she been stopped!

She (Auntie Mabel, not the lovely actress Lynda Baron) is not a very good role model to young children and the way that the world works now a days i would question why she is allowed on T.V. Now I am sure the Auntie Mabel and Pippin fans out there are outraged by my comments but I am hoping that you will read the rest of this and either laugh at my comical thoughts on the show or agree with it and will never be able to watch another episode without thinking "oh yeah, Martyn is right there"

The very first episode I saw was A Rainy Day: In this episode it is raining hard, Auntie Mabel's guttering breaks and she and Pippin go out to fix it. Got to give the old girl credit here, going out on a rainy, slippery day to climb a ladder and fix the guttering, I'll be honest I was just thankful she came down without hurting herself! Pippin, as a good dog follows her outside. She fixes the guttering and goes in where she sings incey wincy spider. Lovely........Where is Pippin? Oh he's outside getting wet!! She only remembers him after realising her Papers wet and that Pippin would need to go and get a new one! Poor dog, but Auntie Mabel had a stressful day we can let her off, can't we??

Next episode: This one aggravates me more!
It is about clay, oh how interesting i thought, William might learn something here. Auntie Mabel has a Teapot that breaks and wants to replace it. "Pippin it's time to fly"  What to the local shop, quick yes, but not very green is it? We find out that the shop is all out and they would have to wait a week for a new one. This isn't good enough. So we fly to the factory, where we see them made and varnished. We sadly again find out that the factory has sold their current stock but if we wait and hour we could have our Teapot. Instead of teaching my son patience and waiting the hour, Auntie Mabel and Pippin fly off to another independent maker, where they are out of clay and they go to a clay pit. In reality.in this time frame, even with flying, this probably took longer than an hour. But at least Auntie Mabel got her Teapot, when she wanted it!!

Auntie Mabel's care for Pippin deteriorates through the series.

In the episode named "Holes" she loses Pippin, who we find is stuck down a hole. In "Buses" she leaves Pippin on a Bus, and instead of going to the bus station and waiting and reporting Pippin lost, she goes home, gets in her plane and flys around looking for him, hang on, she must have amazing eye sight to see Pippin from up there, or maybe she is actually wanting to kill the world, eventually the bus station phone her with her reply " it's OK let him ride the bus back to my house". In the episode "Recycling" she actually loses Pippin at the Recycling dump and goes home without him. (I hate this episode I will say why a little later)
We see that his real main diet is just made of Sausages, which might be a nice treat, but seriously can't be healthy, no wonder they needed to replace the first one! In the episode names "brushes" Pippin is allowed to run around a dangerous factory causing mayhem, messing up the production. And on my last account of animal cruelty or careless behaviour the episode titled "Water" we see Pippin needing to a bowl of water, poor Pippin waits the entire episode for his water, when Auntie Mabel quite happily flushes her toilet, runs a bath and drinks water herself when telling the "fun" children's story. She even mocks Pippin, calling her a "Silly girl" or telling her off for doing a poo! Even her finishing statement of "Oh Pippin" this is just sad.

Why hasn't anyone phoned RSPCA on her? Everyone knows her, they all know and address her as Auntie Mabel, so obviously they know her fairly well, but everyone seems to be blind over her treatment of Pippin! What does she have over her community?!

The last point I will mention in the episode named "Letters" Auntie Mabel writes a letter to her friend who she has stayed with because they left Pippins bag at her friends house. Now, knowing Auntie Mabel's lack of love for the environment we would assume that she would jump on a plane and go get the bag. No! She rides in a post van, and then disturbs the post office and then rides the post train, where she then arrives at her letters destination. At which point she then gets Pippins missing bag and abuses the post service for the return journey home. What a pointless episode.
Oh and the Recycling episode mentioned above, does anyone else think it slightly redundant that Aunt Mabel flys to and from the recycling plant (twice) when the episode is about trying our best to save the world and reduce our carbon footprint!

So, in conclusion, this woman needs to be stopped. Poor Pippin.

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p.s  I would love you guys to pay attention to the blatant pretend dog in the aeroplane with the robotics moving!