To start things off, I decided to have on here a few clips of something I think a lot of us find more than a bit creepy; old puppets. Whether or not it's the old Uncanny Valley principle at work or something else, puppetry can delight children, but can occasionally send their parents running for the exits. I'm going to share with you know a little selection of very odd puppet creations I've discovered thanks to the Tube of You and other sources over the years. Let's start with something I first found thanks to a video by Demon Tomato Dave, this is from a little known 1944 film called Jam Session, and our creepy little homunculus in this one is called Stringy. There are two main reasons I find him a bit unnerving; firstly the voice, which was done using the old Sonovox method. In a couple of old school Doctor Who episodes they did the Cyberman voices that way, that may be why I find it a bit unnerving. Secondly, it's the way the little freak doesn't plain sit still, it's like he's having some kind of fit on stage. Just have a look, and see what you think of him.
Go home Stringy, you're drunk. Now, when you think of puppetry one name that comes to mind is probably Gerry Anderson. His shows in the field of Supermarionation were truly pioneering, but did you know he originally started making puppet shows for another creator, Roberta Leigh? Yes, his early series were collaborations with her, before he split away and went his own route from Four Feather Falls and Supercar onwards. Well Roberta Leigh tried to play catch up to a degree with her own puppet shows in the same vein, which really have not aged as well as Anderson's have. There's something about the much rougher around the edges versions of her works. As an example, at the start of this video is the opening of Space Patrol. The weird electronic sounds, the lack of music, the black & white starscape, it's like something out of Eraserhead! She followed it up with Paul Starr, a pilot for a TV series that never got off the ground, definitely going for a real Fireball XL5/Stingray feel. Now there are several reasons why I don't think this ever became a full series; firstly, the miniature work is awful, they clearly didn't try the faster camera speeds you need to use with such models, to make them have more of a sense of scale. Secondly, and reason I'm featuring it on here, the faces on all of the human characters, including Paul Starr himself, are a bit... off. The proportions and skin tone all look a bit wrong, in a most unsettling way, perhaps it's on account of the makers not being used to filming in colour. Final reason, they were probably concerns from the producers about getting sued by Terry Nation and the BBC; take a brief look at the clip below, and tell me if the robots in it look a tad familiar...
Forgot to mention the casual racism and sexism too, but sadly for British TV at the time, that probably wouldn't have been a deal breaker. Now for the next clip, it's from a variety show done for BBC 1 in the eighties, The Main Attraction, fronted by Tommy Cooper (Gods bless him!). This performance was by a puppet called Ioni controlled by one Alain Carbooter. Carbooter had a long career in the circus as an acrobat, and Ioni was a culmination of that career. The range of movement this thing has is very impressive I have to admit, but it's still a bit unnerving, the unmoving facial features as this thing moves in a close-to, but not quite human manner. It's perfectly OK to be astonished, charmed, and creeped out all at the same time with this thing.
Dunno why they went with Yesterday for the backing music on that one. Next up, who here has heard of the Donut Repair Club? No? Not surprised; it's a low budget kids show in America, with a talking donut mascot, who's a bit unnerving himself, but the real reason it's on here is the fact that this is a case of puppets for Jesus. I have no problem in theory with kids shows having a religious angle (I should note that though I'm an atheist, I'm no Richard Dawkins level one!), but I have to say that the interpretations in this one are rather alarming. Like in this first clip; "Jesus bought us with his special money, his blood!". Erm, I'm pretty sure Christ himself, given his relations with moneylenders, would probably not put it like that. Yeah, this one is less on here for the puppets themselves (although the Golem Loaf in the first clip is damn disturbing on its own!), but for some very dodgy interpretations of canon...
A song that graphic about David & Goliath should not be that upbeat! Check out the rest of Everything is Terrible!'s channel for more weird puppet stuff like that. To finish then, it's time to bring out the big guns. I first heard about this one from Ghost Stories' Andy Nyman in an appearance on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, and it's been something of a fascination of mine ever since. I've been to a few found footage nights, including those by the Duke Mitchell Film Club that has featured excerpts from this, so I'll just leave you with more unnerving religious content. Folks, don't have nightmares, it's only The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show!
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