Timmy Mallett explains apartheid
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2015
- No, *really*! Broadcast on Wacaday during the summer holidays of 1991, this piece shows Timmy Mallett visiting South Africa while apartheid was in the process of falling, all the while describing the inequalities faced and the barriers that were then just beginning to be broken down. I know you're scoffing already, but seriously: this should have won every award going. All children should be made to watch this video.
Those of us who are old enough to have enjoyed Wacaday regularly all remember Timmy as being more than a little barking, but this report really is unbelievably good. (Utterly, utterly brilliant, in fact.) Not preachy, no anger, not even especially political; but the way he explains apartheid simply and concisely enough for children to understand, before pausing and looking down the barrel and asking, "It's not fair, is it?" really got me. I know it's aimed at kids and has a real aren't-grown-ups-silly sort of tone to it, but in all honesty there were documentaries in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's death that didn't paint the picture as effectively as Timmy Mallett did two-and-a-half decades ago. Who says Wacaday wasn't educational? The show your telly was made for, indeed.
You can view the rest of the episode this clip comes from here:
• Wacaday (summer 1991) ...
Just to clear up something: Wide Awake Club was TV-am's full-length Saturday morning kids' show. During school holidays, they put on a daily cut-down half-hour version (which actually turned out to be even better than its big brother), and this clip comes from that. WAC stands for Wide Awake Club; Wacaday = A Wide-Awake-Club-a-Day, which also sounds a bit like "holiday".
Major shout out to Neil for providing this recording. You can view his fantastic Sooty-related channel here: / thesootyshoworg - highly recommended.
(Please remember that this is an off-air VHS recording, so don't go expecting 1080p HD quality. I'm fairly certain that this video isn't commercially available, and I've uploaded it for its historic interest only. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.) - Zábava
This guy was totally underrated. Whether parents liked it or not, Timmy got our attention here in Britain in the early 90's. I watched his show in the summer holidays religiously...not only some great cartoons, but serious subjects explained in a VERY silly and funny way....great stuff, for a 10 year old!
+www.DrumsTheWord.com He pitched it all so perfectly that it's only when I look back through adult eyes that I realise Wacaday was educational!
My parents used to say that I learned more about the world from a week watching Wacaday than I could in a month of school. I was 7 when this aired and all I remembered about it was that it made sense- it really does, even as an adult. His coverage of the collapse of the eastern bloc was similar- no attempt to treat kids as adults (as newsround did), just as human beings that can understand injustice
Weaselpipe Well said! It's genuinely surprising just how educational Wacaday was, looking back through adult eyes. Kids really do have an innate sense of fairness, and I love the way Timmy just states the facts as simply as possible, and then just leaves it to that to do the rest.
@@VideotapeFTW I agree. Learning should be fun.
"The most important thing you have to do, is to talk. Because talking, you find out what other people think, and you can settle your differences, and you can come to a peaceful and happy solution. And that hopefully, it's what's going to happen in South Africa."
Timmy should've won a BAFTA for this.
It's a great piece, isn't it? Definitely should have been recognised one way or the other.
I worked at TVam and Timmy was a fantastic bloke and professional. I tried to blag a place on his production in Jordan without luck. Most recently I bought his Utterly Brilliant book about his career and travels along the pilgrimage way to Santiago.
Oh, that's really nice to hear what he was like as a person. And I always thought Timmy was a much better presenter than people were willing to give him credit for. Did you work there long, by the way? What did you do? (Just being nosy!)
Timmy Mallett would have made a great teacher. I never missed an episode of Wacaday because Timmy Mallett was a great presenter
Timmy explaining a horrible racist system to children, and he does it extremely well, conveying such a horror to innocent minds is a hard thing to do but he pulls it off well, this is why he’s the king and a legend of children’s entertainment.
I wonder about his dilemma when asked to do this and how he sat and thought about how to approach the subject.
This is amazing! I think Timmy Mallett was very underrated - he pitched himself perfectly here between serious and silly, which is no mean task. Thanks so much for uploading!
ersatzwilderness You're very welcome - and I agree completely. Parents were so concerned about Timmy hitting kids over the head with a foam mallet that they completely missed just how educational the show was in amongst all the silliness.
"It's not fair, is it?"
And that's all he needed to say to encapsulate everything. Love this man.
Fair play to Timmy Mallet for making what was an extremely complex political situation accessible to children. Actually he did an excellent job.
WaksTrode Couldn't agree more - I can't help thinking that we should be showing this clip in as many schools as possible.
Timmy's summer expedition films are one of the things I remember most fondly about Wacaday. Learned a lot seeing other countries which I don't think I got to see elsewhere, certainly not on children's TV.
+P Hampton It's hard to believe just how many detractors this show had - there were always calls for it to be cancelled due to its silliness, and it makes me wonder how the angry parents missed all those expeditions.
The ironic thing is, There were a lot less restrictions with TV back then and people were a bit less uptight!
"That silly thing called Apartheid" sums it up better than any academic could.
Utterly Brilliant indeed, simple and to the point so that kids can understand. Good ol' Timmy Malett.
I remember seeing this when it first aired. I was only a child at the time and never knew anything about Apartheid. Very grateful to him and to you for uploading it.
Just stumbled on to this (and his twitter too) and got real respect for the bloke now!
Well said. I know Timmy's reputation for being utterly bonkers is mostly his own doing (because that's what he was going for), but things like this show that there's more depth to him than he was ever given credit for back then. I hope history is kind to him.
Timmy could easily put himself into the mind set of a child, thus he could educate them on their own intellectual level. On the other hand, Timmy could also be adult and grown up when the situation demanded it too. And children are bound to remember something Timmy Mallett did rather more than what they learnt at school or in an adult documentary.
Thanks for the love
VideotapeFTW
I remember this. Timmy Mallet was absolutely brilliant.
*Utterly, _utterly_ brilliant.
Very simple - Very moving. It's equidistant between fact and fun. I have to say,I'm tremendously excited by all this !
rrbh I know you posted this a year ago...but that was text book 👌🏻
Liked watching him when I was a kid
Brilliant! Timmy Mallet is cool.
I liked the dude rolling a joint at 0:31.
2021 anyone? Got this vid from my reading online lessons
Timmy Mallet wears one baseball cap over another.
Good spot. :-) It's actually a visual pun on some double peaked African mountains, believe it or not. Timmy also sometimes wore a cape (of Good Hope) in this series.
It was at the time Twin Peaks was popular, he used to refer to them as such
Moving scenes there. I wonder, whatever happened to South Africa in the end? Did the people start to live together as equals like Timmy Mallet hoped for?
***** they did
***** It's slightly bittersweet watching it now. There's clearly an air of optimism in the video, and things definitely improved greatly around that time in terms of discrimination in South Africa and the country brought itself more into line with the rest of the world - but then again, the rest of the world itself still has a long way to go in terms of beating discrimination completely. Thankfully, though, Apartheid in South Africa is indeed now very much a thing of the past.
VideotapeFTW Apartheid still exists in a place called Palestine who got wiped off the world map as you know, modern day apartheid system is still in place, segregation, ethnic cleansing and discrimination at the hands of the people who you would of thought knew better. Like you said the world has a long way to go
London Dweller I've edited my previous comment to make clear that I was speaking specifically about South Africa.
Well if you ask World Bank, nah
The week before, Timmy simplified the Kalergi Plan and its devastating effect on Europe.
Maybe he did ...
The Fred Rogers of the UK
"Timmy Mallett explains apartheid"
And next on ITV, Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog explain the fall of Eastern European Communism.
A bit of jealousy there I think.
I don't know about you but Timmy Mallet explained it much better than Newsround would.
Two hats 😂
why tf is it spelled wacday in the late 80s
You mean the logo? You're supposed to read the 'a' twice - once down, and once across.
Because it came out of a programme called the Wide Awake Club, so they called it WAC-a-day. Helped that he went round and whacked things, I suppose..