For over 30 years, The Children’s Film Foundation produced quality entertainment for young audiences, employing the cream of British filmmaking talent. Unavailable for years, these much-loved films finally make a welcome return to out screens.
Had enough of the hideous here and now? Take a moment of me-time, turn off your phone and whizz back to analogue days with this effervescent assortment of retro-cinema corkers from the Children’s Film Foundation – Britain’s best-loved makers of quality children’s cinema for kids young and old, from the boxy blazered 1950s to the synthetic-fibred 1980s.
This very British cinematic rabbit hole leads to a land of eccentric fun, silly scrapes and escapist thrills where you’ll encounter nine marvellous feature-length mini-masterpieces for kids, not to mention a sumptuous sideshow of unusually invigorating extras. So grab your outsize bag of sherbet lemons, crack open a Vimto and settle down for a terrific box-set binge to beat those modern-world blues!

Duff up some 1950s jewel thieves after you hide your pets from the council-estate rent collector in The Dog and the Diamonds, thwart sinister spies then jump out of an aeroplane as you ride The Stolen Airliner, then hope Michael ‘Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em’ Crawford’s trousers stay up as he tootles away in Blow Your Own Trumpet!
Hit the road as Sixties beatniks help you chase an old piano across town in The Missing Note, wrestle salmon straight out of the river in The Big Catch and thwart blundering crook Bernard ‘Carry On’ Bresslaw’s attempts to snaffle a secret formula from a barmy boy-inventor in Blinker’s Spy-Spotter!
Vanquish a time-travelling, fire-breathing dragon with Bob ‘The Benny Hill Show’ Todd in The Flying Sorcerer, stage a fierce Seventies-style eco-protest with a magical seal-man in Mr Selkie, and disappear deep inside your 1980s home computer in Gabrielle and the Doodleman with Matthew ‘Stars in Their Eyes’ Kelly, Lynsey ‘Rock Bottom’ de Paul and Eric ‘The Plank’ Sykes!

Plus sundry smashing shorts! Horsey hi-jinks and sneaky saddle-snappery in Stable Rivals,saggy socked seaside shenanigans in Swift Water, the Chiffy Kids meet Kenny ‘Dr Terror’s House of Horrors’ Lynch and Harry H ‘Steptoe and Son’ Corbett in Pot Luck and Alice the Chimp in The Big Kick, reminders of pre-internet pastimes in Our Magazine No 4, and a brand spanking new documentary revisiting some of the greatest ever CFF film locations.

UK | 1952 - 1984 | black and white, colour | total running time 479 minutes | English language | original aspect rations 1.33:1, 1.66:1 | Cert PG (Mild threat, violence, injury detail) | 3 x DVD9, PAL, Dolby Digital 1.0 mono audio (192kbps)