The whole show ran like some kind of state-sponsored experimental child conditioning initiative. First the music, soft and parentally comforting, yet with cautionary menacing undertones of existential dread, accompanied by the hypnotic image of the rotating box: objectively intriguing yet subjectively captivating (prison). Then comes Alan, the host, talking to his audience in an unsettling passive-aggressive, morally authoritative interrogative style, characteristically delivering a selection of material designed to promote obedience and present unfavourable consequences to any form of deviation from official parametric normality.
You just skilfully encapsulated how I felt watching and remembering the introduction of this PROGRAM. It's interesting as the Tiktok upload of the same, that made me come to UA-cam, has replies that describe the feeling of dread.
@@placidrenegadeSounds similar to our school tv. It had 2 hinged sides with a cloth 'canopy' to shield from the sun' reflection. The theme music always creeped me out a bit, but then found the presenter reassuring and calming!
Alan Rothwell is the only man who can make Donald Pleasence seem cheery and affable. "Hello. Today's story will not be about ghosts...yet. But, rather, about the price of failure, children."
Good grief. I have not seen this particular episode of Picture Box since I was a child - this ones from 1988 so I must have been off school sick, I recall I was seriously ill with some sort of vomit bug back then.... I am 44 now. I remember this animated version the story....I never really liked Picture Box, its theme tune, that glass box revolving or Alan Rothwell....I just watched it as a child whenever I was ill, or not at Primary School in the mornings - I learnt more from my Mother than I did at my Primary School which was usually bring toys in, go to the park and lark about via a chartered double decker bus or 'reading books'....thankfully my Late Mother taught me how to read and write and watched programmes like this with me....thank you Mummy...RIP.
I remember this as a kid in the 70s/80s. I never got how some were scared of the music, I rather liked it. Seeing Alan Rothwell and hearing his voice brings it all back - I just remember a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, telling a story. I think it was a great way to get children to think about the stories they are told and read between the lines.
I like the music but there is something melancholy about it. For me, it conjures up images of a long deserted playground, empty for decades and decaying, odd but that's what I always imagined when it played.
I got recently diagnosed as being autistic I'm now 40, I can remember always getting told off for putting my hands over my ears at school when we had to watch this programme, atleast in this day an age more is known about the condition
The TV trolley. The dark space under the stage. The disappearance and silence of the supervising teacher. The smell of other children’s shoes and the cork noticeboard. The enormous VCR. The children’s whistling hearing aid and the elusive ‘loop’. The darkly sinister library books. The walk home on your own at age seven. The crunch of snow under cheap and blister inducing shoes. Having tea in your school uniform and afternoon TV.
I loved Picture Box as a kid, the series was made by my ITV region, Granada. I found the music fascinating and not scary at all.. The series was given a revamp in the late 80s with a new presenter replacing Alan Rothwell. Dramarama was the kids equivalent to Tales Of The Unexpected..
I very much loved this show and loved every moment of it. I am o glad I found it here. Thank you very much. Brings back many fond memories. Alan rothwell made me want to be a writer. Great voice and demeanor. Not creepy and I resent the comment.
What could be more haunting than the combination of the weirdly drawn 1972 Sleepy Hollow cartoon narrated by horror icon John Carradine and the nightmarish Picture Box hosted by your favourite creepy school teacher, played by Alan Rothwell.
I also used to watch this in school back in the early 80's. The way the presenter says, "Hello" at the beginning always freaked me out a bit. It was like he wanted to show me some puppies.
Picture box was the first schools TV programme I remember seeing in the late 60’s, when Alan Rothwell had brown hair, I loved the music and the little box.
1:32 At last! Proof that we never had carved pumpkins in the 1970s in Britain. Now I can send this link to my nieces and nephews, in case they still don't believe me :)
I am haunted by one episode of Picture Box called The Man in the Moor. It terrified and absorbed me in equal measure. I'd love to see it as a grown up if anyone has it.
Ahhh, if only they'd do a tv series or another film of Sleepy Hollow, but without 90% CGI and just made it a real gritty spooky atmospheric story - now that would be great
Yes, I remember these school programs ! .. Funnily enough, I watched an episode of 'Gideons Way' from the 60's and who is starring in that episode??? .. A young 'Alan Rothwell' !! ...
I was about 8 when this was broadcast... As if the opening titles and theme weren't eerie enough, a dark story like The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow was even more haunting still! Loved the episode / story, though
I was just watching vintage Corrie episodes from the 1960's when I noticed David Barlow. There was something vaguely familiar about him so I looked up the actor's name. When I saw that he had presented many children's programs, including this one, I found this video. Talking about metaphorically finding the key to a door that had been lock for decades.... it all came back to me... the haunting qualities of the intro that made me feel distinctly uneasy as a child, but then the warm, reassuring manner and voice of Alan Rothwell. I had totally forgotten about this program until now.
@LeFouGallois its simple have you been living as a troglodyte? Im not saying you are a troglodyte but get with the programme! I will let you work it out monsieur
This brings back memories.. My mum used to party with Alan when I was in primary school,, wasn't aloud to tell people how I knew him when watching this with the class in school but me an my brother would get joke off the 'If only they really knew him' 😂😂😂
It’s all utterly haunting. I’m sure we were being conditioned into something. My mother blamed Thatcher taking our milk away. I blame it on this hypnotic and oddly sleep inducing ambience.
Great tv. But it scared me at the time. At this point we knew that children’s tv didn’t all Have to have psychotic cocaine induced smiles from the presenters, and happy endings.
@@danchaplin134 Structures Sonores played the music, Manege (with an accent on the first e) by Jacques Lasry. There are recordings of the full piece elsewhere on youtube.
![Take Hart [BBC Children's TV 70s] whole episode](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P0i8g0n6qGo/mqdefault.jpg)
The downvote must be from a retired school janitor who hated rolling the tv trolley between classes for kids to watch this on it.
How true😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
👊📺😖🖕 👀
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That was a big tv.
The intro to this always reminded me of The Tales of the Unexpected.
🔥💃🔥 🎭 🇬🇧
That terrifying music is the sound of being off school with mumps or chickenpox.
🤣👌
Aww man I loved this show. At 50+ years now...that theme just rocks.
Same here Brother !
The theme music haunted me as a ten year old and still does now nearly 40 years later
This series made the Exorcist seem like a walk in the park 😂😂😂😂
U do understand that u were being hypnotised.
We watched this at junior school where the huge tv was in the hall in its cabinet and we all sat to watch, spellbound!
We watched these at school. I am now an adult who requires anti phychotic medication to function.
Me too, but it wasn't due to great kids stories like this. More due to excessive drinking & bad genes :)
Sitting here drinking. I wasn’t addicted to alcohol when I watched this. Fucking hell.
hahaha
What was so scary about Picture Box?. I guess you hadn’t seen The Boy From Space, now THAT was scary..
They loved scary boxes back then. ua-cam.com/video/-BxxdE9GvZc/v-deo.html
The whole show ran like some kind of state-sponsored experimental child conditioning initiative. First the music, soft and parentally comforting, yet with cautionary menacing undertones of existential dread, accompanied by the hypnotic image of the rotating box: objectively intriguing yet subjectively captivating (prison). Then comes Alan, the host, talking to his audience in an unsettling passive-aggressive, morally authoritative interrogative style, characteristically delivering a selection of material designed to promote obedience and present unfavourable consequences to any form of deviation from official parametric normality.
His name is Alan, not Victor.
Hoksworth Wipple thank you... corrected
God Alan Rothwell was even scarier than the theme tune!
yeah..mind control classes
You just skilfully encapsulated how I felt watching and remembering the introduction of this PROGRAM. It's interesting as the Tiktok upload of the same, that made me come to UA-cam, has replies that describe the feeling of dread.
Just something about this, I remember it quite well, curtains closed to block the sunshine out and off we go!
Just_David We watched it on a large telly with wheels which also had black plastic panels that could be fashioned to "shroud" sunlight.
@@placidrenegade the sunlight was always "shrouded" by orange floral curtains...
📺🧘♂️🧘♀️🧘
@@placidrenegadeSounds similar to our school tv. It had 2 hinged sides with a cloth 'canopy' to shield from the sun' reflection. The theme music always creeped me out a bit, but then found the presenter reassuring and calming!
Alan Rothwell is the only man who can make Donald Pleasence seem cheery and affable. "Hello. Today's story will not be about ghosts...yet. But, rather, about the price of failure, children."
Good grief. I have not seen this particular episode of Picture Box since I was a child - this ones from 1988 so I must have been off school sick, I recall I was seriously ill with some sort of vomit bug back then.... I am 44 now. I remember this animated version the story....I never really liked Picture Box, its theme tune, that glass box revolving or Alan Rothwell....I just watched it as a child whenever I was ill, or not at Primary School in the mornings - I learnt more from my Mother than I did at my Primary School which was usually bring toys in, go to the park and lark about via a chartered double decker bus or 'reading books'....thankfully my Late Mother taught me how to read and write and watched programmes like this with me....thank you Mummy...RIP.
Loved this as a 70s kid.
I remember this as a kid in the 70s/80s. I never got how some were scared of the music, I rather liked it. Seeing Alan Rothwell and hearing his voice brings it all back - I just remember a middle-aged man in a suit and tie, telling a story. I think it was a great way to get children to think about the stories they are told and read between the lines.
I like the music but there is something melancholy about it. For me, it conjures up images of a long deserted playground, empty for decades and decaying, odd but that's what I always imagined when it played.
Music didn't scare me as a child, Its in later life hearing it now i realize how haunting it sounds.
Omg it still gives me the Heebie's with a side of jeebies to this day hahahaa makes my hair stand on end hahaha
I think it's the chords it uses. Some of which are well known in music to give feelings of dread and negativity. It's not woo woo either.
I found it a bit eerie and haunting
I got recently diagnosed as being autistic I'm now 40, I can remember always getting told off for putting my hands over my ears at school when we had to watch this programme, atleast in this day an age more is known about the condition
The TV trolley. The dark space under the stage. The disappearance and silence of the supervising teacher. The smell of other children’s shoes and the cork noticeboard. The enormous VCR. The children’s whistling hearing aid and the elusive ‘loop’. The darkly sinister library books. The walk home on your own at age seven. The crunch of snow under cheap and blister inducing shoes. Having tea in your school uniform and afternoon TV.
I loved Picture Box as a kid, the series was made by my ITV region, Granada. I found the music fascinating and not scary at all.. The series was given a revamp in the late 80s with a new presenter replacing Alan Rothwell.
Dramarama was the kids equivalent to Tales Of The Unexpected..
I very much loved this show and loved every moment of it. I am o glad I found it here. Thank you very much. Brings back many fond memories. Alan rothwell made me want to be a writer. Great voice and demeanor. Not creepy and I resent the comment.
Alan Rothwell. Bless him.
What could be more haunting than the combination of the weirdly drawn 1972 Sleepy Hollow cartoon narrated by horror icon John Carradine and the nightmarish Picture Box hosted by your favourite creepy school teacher, played by Alan Rothwell.
Yep. Picture Box and The Book Tower used to scare the willies out of me. 😂
i always loved watching this as a kid. And I still want that box in the opening credits. Would love to find one.
Ask itv if they still have it, u never know till u ask xx
I also used to watch this in school back in the early 80's. The way the presenter says, "Hello" at the beginning always freaked me out a bit. It was like he wanted to show me some puppies.
🐩🐩 👀☝️
Picture box was the first schools TV programme I remember seeing in the late 60’s, when Alan Rothwell had brown hair, I loved the music and the little box.
1:32 At last! Proof that we never had carved pumpkins in the 1970s in Britain. Now I can send this link to my nieces and nephews, in case they still don't believe me :)
Yeah we didn't really celebrate Halloween until the early 80s, never did when I was a kid
@@burkhillcomedy I actually wonder whether the UK got the idea from E.T.!
Trick or treat however is a English practice going back 1500 years. My nan in the 1930s would trick or treat.
I do remember making a Jack o' Lantern in the 70s, and I'm in the UK...
We used to carve turnips but never pumpkins!
I remember this in a dark classroom, freaked out!
Same.
Lovely theme music and presenter has a nice, soothing voice, perfect for storytelling.
Complex story telling for a 6 year old. I'm quite impressed with our youth after this.
The tune is "Menège" (Merry-go-round) by Jacques Lasry.
That music and his voice take me back to childhood. Good memories.
Oh! My God! I've found this l was about 8or9 when this came out it brings back so many memories thank you for finding a fine piece of my childhood!
wow this brings back memory's from my child hood .
Vivid memories, these stories were often the highlight of a long week in primary school.
What a marvellous voice this man has.
I remember watching this at school.
watching TV at School instead of lessons... thanks Granada and Alan..lol
Brings back great memories. What an enchanting tune that drew me to look for this in u tube today. 👍
Reminds me of being off school of an afternoon in the 70s
As if the Picture Box theme isn't terrifying enough, they then add a psychedelic horror cartoon
We weren't snowflakes back then lol
@@macstar2010Picture Box still used to scare the shit out of me back in the day
@@macstar2010snowflakes or not, it scared me when I was young........
For years I thought the presenter was Michael Cochrane. Now I see it was Alan Rothwell, who is now 82!
I looked him up on wiki and saw that after he finished on this he played an heroine addict in Brookside lol
The presenter played Ken Barlow's brother in Coronation Street.
Yes luv, his name is Alan Rothwell. He's now 82.
Did he also play the junkie husband of Heather in Brookside?
@@caerfaimama Yes he did. Well remembered! The character's name was Nicholas Black.
He was dating heather haversham in brookside
I am haunted by one episode of Picture Box called The Man in the Moor. It terrified and absorbed me in equal measure. I'd love to see it as a grown up if anyone has it.
Just hearing this music makes me feel febrile. Many a sick day off school in the early 80s watching this. Pass the Calpol and Lucozade please.
Lucozade was a treat together with cough mixture 😁👌
Ski yoghurt (the full of fitness food) was my "treat" if I was off, sick, from school!! Or junket.
Ahhh, if only they'd do a tv series or another film of Sleepy Hollow, but without 90% CGI and just made it a real gritty spooky atmospheric story - now that would be great
It's hypnotic
John Carradine had such an amazing voice!
i had forgot about this program,such memorys.
Quentin smythes spoofs this so well.......
Yes, I remember these school programs ! .. Funnily enough, I watched an episode of 'Gideons Way' from the 60's and who is starring in that episode??? .. A young 'Alan Rothwell' !! ...
At 42, I'm still scared from my 80's education. I'm single and I self medicate. One day I may become a functional human being regardless.
Thank you sooooo much for posting this
Takes me back to being off school lol
We got this at school in the 70s. Is it any wonder my generation ended up taking loads of drugs ✌️
I was happy to put up with it as it got me out of doing work.
🤣👌
Think the theme music was played on the glass harmonica, very creepy sitting in a dark class room in the 70s when I was a kid.
ua-cam.com/video/ihiOqMw6-KI/v-deo.html
you are so right
I remember that chunky 70s tv set. And that music that sounded like it should be played by Pennywise just as you were waking up. 🥶😂
I was about 8 when this was broadcast... As if the opening titles and theme weren't eerie enough, a dark story like The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow was even more haunting still! Loved the episode / story, though
I always liked the music.
I loved this
the music scared the **** out of me.
Anyone who grew up in the seventies freaked out by sights and downs of that dark decade?
I was just watching vintage Corrie episodes from the 1960's when I noticed David Barlow. There was something vaguely familiar about him so I looked up the actor's name. When I saw that he had presented many children's programs, including this one, I found this video. Talking about metaphorically finding the key to a door that had been lock for decades.... it all came back to me... the haunting qualities of the intro that made me feel distinctly uneasy as a child, but then the warm, reassuring manner and voice of Alan Rothwell. I had totally forgotten about this program until now.
What is the number on your cave door 🚪?
@@andrewjohnstone963 ?
@LeFouGallois its simple have you been living as a troglodyte? Im not saying you are a troglodyte but get with the programme!
I will let you work it out monsieur
Creepy theme tune and a presenter that looked like he was in the gestapo😵💫
School was great in the 70’s and 80’s 👍
This brings back memories.. My mum used to party with Alan when I was in primary school,, wasn't aloud to tell people how I knew him when watching this with the class in school but me an my brother would get joke off the 'If only they really knew him' 😂😂😂
It's my childhood :)
Mine too mate. That music still hypnotises me into some sort of dream world!
I remember watching this at Home with a fever. I was doped up to the eyeballs on med. I was spinning out.completely fucked up.
Loved getting the tv & taking my time getting it 😂
It’s all utterly haunting. I’m sure we were being conditioned into something. My mother blamed Thatcher taking our milk away. I blame it on this hypnotic and oddly sleep inducing ambience.
This music used to creep meout
With no lift in our school I often wondered how they got that tv up to the 1st floor.
🏗 👈👀👉📺
Presenter Alan Rothwell was as creepy and scary as the music as a kid.
After seeing the creepy never go with strangers this guy was for me a stranger. I bet he drove a Hillman avenger
I think that's John Carradine doing the narration
Haven't seen this in years
Creepy music!
I had never seen this until it was recommended to me by a stranger, I don’t know who it was, but I blame Quentin Smirhes•
I wonder what happened to the original 'picture box' from the title sequence? I'd pay up to £15 for it if the current owner is interested.
This guy still creeps me out. As if they made we watch this when I was 7
I wonder who narrated the story; his voice sounds familiar. He reminds me of Dick Dastardly! 😆
@Ian Doody thank you
Yes, it DOES sound like Paul Winchell !! (Amazing that, as well as an HB Voice Artist, He built one of the 1st artificial Hearts !!!) ❤️😮
Alan Rothwell also played a heroin addict in Brookside
And Ken Barlows brother David in the 1960s.
"Hello..."
Oh boy, did this music strike dread in me. Even now its traumatic. Thank you BBC schools.
It was itv not the bbc
What was the pretty, rotating box in the Picture Box start & end credits, please?
Great tv. But it scared me at the time. At this point we knew that children’s tv didn’t all
Have to have psychotic cocaine induced smiles from the presenters, and happy endings.
Imagine being told stories now on telly
No wonder we're all fucked. Lol
Is that George C Scott narrating this? It really sounds like him to me.
Hello!
I adore the theme song, singer is rather creepy too. Maybe I was just a weird kid
Who did the music ?
@@danchaplin134 Structures Sonores played the music, Manege (with an accent on the first e) by Jacques Lasry. There are recordings of the full piece elsewhere on youtube.
Nothing like Johnny Depp though. 🤣🤣
Strange I remember him but always hated the music
The narrator sounds like John Carradine.
Sounds like the story was narrated by John Carradine.
The only episode I remember was how Newzealand was created from a Whale. Don't ask me how, I can't remember.
Mark Wallace how?
0:52 if you had a fat teacher you’d laugh your head off
Who narrated the cartoon
Creepy af, hated hated hated
You don't know a certain teacher at my high school mate.
Lazy teaching. Wasn't very educational and Alan was akin to Mogadon to me.
The presenter comes across as really sinister and horrible!
Really? I always thought he seemed friendly but dull...