Adventure Island
 Adventure Island was designed for an audience of young
(3 - 9 years of age) children, and grew out of an earlier children's
magazine style series, The Magic Circle Club.
Produced from
the Melbourne studios of the ABC, Adventure Island was immensely
popular and screened five afternoons a week.
Each episode concerned a self-contained story which took place
on Adventure Island in the Kingdom of Diddle Dum Diddle. The
regular characters on the island were Clown, Lisa, Fifi, Penny
Panda and Sailor.
The villains of the show were Miser Meanie and Fester Fumble
(played with a suitable degree of camp by Colin McEwan and Ernie
Bourne respectively). The action was laced with songs, with Nancy
Cato and (from 1969) Sue Donovan acting as narrator.
When in 1973 the ABC decided not to renew the series, intending
to purchase Sesame Street from the American educational
network PBS instead, there was a public outcry (extending to
Federal Parliament) but the adventure was over.
Actor, writer and the show's creator John-Michael Howson blames
ABC bureaucracy for sinking the 5 year old show. "They made
up their minds and cancelled the bloody thing without taking
notice of the huge reaction".
|
