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Torchy the Battery Boy: The Complete Second Series
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Rob Hunt (23rd September 2005). |
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The Show
 Torchy The Battery Boy is a unique kids TV program revolving around the character of Torchy and his magical powers. Torchy is -as the title implicates- not a real boy but a machine. The theme of the story is of this brightly-shining star in the sky ("Topsy Turvy Land") where all the toys that belonged to the naughty kids have been ported off to. These comprise the key characters in the series - there is Torchy, the Battery Boy, who has a magical lamp built into him which helps in times of trouble and is able to help Torchy communicate from the star to people on the Earth (namely Mr Bumble-Drop); then there is Flopsy, the rag-tag rag-doll, who is fairly naïve (more naïve than most) and is the strongest female character in the series. There is also King Dithers (the ruler of Topsy Turvy Land) and other key characters which regularly recur throughout. There are many parallels to be made with other stories that came before, but the most notable one to me was J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan". In the book, the main character Peter Pan is almost heroic and yet at times incredibly annoying and a bit of a rascal; character traits which are mimicked perfectly in Torchy. In some ways Flopsy mirrors Tinkerbell in her worries and naïvety, yet her respect for the heroic rascal (in this case Torchy himself). The voice of King Dithers (Kenneth Connor) is also the voice of Mr Bumble-Drop - which if I recall correctly is another facet of the characters in Peter Pan (amongst other fantasy stories such as "Jumanji" (1995, Joe Johnston)): that the people in the fantasy world are personifications of aspects of the character in the real world. In this instance King Dithers would be playing on the aspect of the dithering/bumbling nature of Mr Bumble-Drop - something that is quite evident in their names! Finally there is the whole aspect of Topsy Turvy Land - a place where there are no rules and no restrictions - the toys can do whatever they want: another strong link to the idea of Neverland in Peter Pan. To this end, Torchy The Battery Boy is a very cleverly scripted and developed story, and -like Peter Pan- perhaps holds meaning behind it. The stories shown reflect elements of daily life, and contain morals that are not particularly dwelled upon, but still are relevant - especially to the children's audience that the show is directed at. One of these would be evident in one of the earlier episodes (on disc one) where the characters who all feel sick do not know what is wrong with them - and the reason behind their illness is alluded to by the character of King Dithers, another reflection on the wise nature of the parent/guardian - in this case the loveable Mr Bumble-Drop. King Dithers explains that the reason for their illness is an unbalanced diet, and that more vegetables are needed to complement their rations of cakes, sweets and lollipops (of which there are plenty in Topsy Turvy World). A lot of other morals can be drawn from the episode storylines too. The accents and political correctness of more modern TV offerings are thrown out the window here completely, with posher ("proper") accents on display from the main character (Torchy) and a fair bit of stereotyping (most notably the slightly dim, gnome-like Mr Bumble-Drop - with his Irish voice and Gillygolly the golliwog) amongst other, perhaps less notable offerings. On the whole though, the episodes are fun to watch (albeit un-PC and fairly repetitive in content - particularly the songs, which occur ad nauseam) and would no doubt hold the attention of a young child; their 'bite-sized' length going a long way to make sure the attention is focussed without ever becoming boring. The complete 26 episodes... DISC ONE contains the first 13 of the 26 episodes present on this 2-disc set. I won't go into detail as each of the episodes is only about 13mins long in length, and the episodes are pretty much summed up in their titles. - 1 "Flopsy Goes on a Picnic" (13:31) - 2 "Torchy Gets a Surprise" (13:33) - 3 "Banana Bridge" (13:31) - 4 "King Dithers and Daffy" (13:32) - 5 "The Toys Get the Collywobbles" (13:31) - 6 "Bogey Learns Another Lesson" (13:31) - 7 "The Pollikan Bird is Stolen" (13:31) - 8 "Torchy Has an Accident" (13:31) - 9 "Sparky the Dragon" (13:28) - 10 "Bogey is Naughty Again" (13:31) - 11 "Pilliwig Cleans The Chimney" (13:35) - 12 "Pongo the Pirate" (13:31) - 13 "Pongo and the Gold Mine" (13:31) DISC TWO contains the second 13 of the 26 episodes present on this 2-disc set. Again, I won't go into detail as each of the episodes is only about 13mins long in length, and the episodes are pretty much summed up in their titles. - 14 "King Dithers' Birthday" (13:31) - 15 "Washing Day in Topsy Turvy Land" (13:31) - 16 "The Gluebell Wood" (13:31) - 17 "Squish Falls Down a Well" (13:31) - 18 "Flopsy in Trouble" (13:32) - 19 "The Big Storm" (13:31) - 20 "Daffy's Birthday" (13:32) - 21 "Flopsy Makes a Christmas Pudding" (13:31) - 22 "Gillygolly in Trouble" (13:32) - 23 "King Bumble-Drop" (13:32) - 24 "A New Suit For Pilliwig" (13:31) - 25 "The Obstinate Donkey" (13:32) - 26 "Pompom Gets the Hiccups" (13:33) No doubt becoming instant cult viewing, it can be understood that the story only ran two series in length - but perhaps, like some of the best TV series out there, two series was a limit that if pushed further could have totally ruined the show, with the repetitive parts outstaying their welcome.
Video
Network have provided a fairly good, clean (for the most part) transfer here - which at the best of times looks impressive and at the worst of times is only marred by print damage or magnetic interference (brief). For a show out of the 1950s the picture quality is of a high standard, but has possible been let down by the compression of 13 episodes per disc (not stretching the disc's capacity a great deal, but spreading them over more discs couldn't have been a bad thing).
Audio
The original English track in 2.0 Dual Mono is provided here, and it's average. A lot of background hiss and some audio clicks and pops here and there were present on my copy, not many but still noticeable. Nothing here to workout any DVD system, really. Most annoying (not sure if this was intentional or not) was the change in pitch of the theme song from the main menu/beginning of the show compared to the end credits - the song was irritating enough by itself, it didn't need to try any harder to annoy!
Extras
None.
Overall
Menus on both discs are animated, with the infuriatingly high-pitched and screechy theme tune. They definitely fit in with the style of things, but also get on the nerves VERY quickly indeed. The entire second (and last) series of Torchy... is presented here in all its glory. Sadly no extras or subtitles have been provided for this release, which is very disappointing (especially the alienation of the deaf/hard of hearing/international market by the lack of subtitling). Fans of Torchy... will no doubt add this set to their collection to complement the existing first series release, completing their Torchy... anthology. The rest of us might want to give it a miss though.
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