There aren't many librarians on children's television, especially not fluffy ones. But the BBC's The Fimbles was no ordinary show. The Fimbles - Fimbo, Florrie, and Baby Pom, look like large-nosed woolly skittles. They live in a psychedelic dream-world called Fimble Valley. Among their friends are a noisy and flippant frog called Rockit, a spherical pink bird called Bessie, and a green and purple Welsh mole called Roly Mo.
Roly Mo is a tidy, conscientious, intellectual counterpoint to the dreamy and messy Fimbles. In every episode he tells them a story from his subterranean library, the best of which combine the crypto-communist subversion of Sesame Street with light-hearted, nonsensical plots beloved of earlier BBC shows like The Teletubbies and Bill and Ben. He precedes every story with a lullaby to his love of books - "When you take a look, inside a book / Who knows what you might see / When you take a look, inside a book, it's fun as fun can be..." Despite the heaving shelves, Roly always seems to read from the same book. This might have something to do with his absentmindedness - despite the chuckling uncle demeanour, one blogger has suggested that his idiosyncratic behaviour might be due to a severe party-lifestyle in his youth. After The Fimbles ended Roly got his own show, but fame didn't suit him. He stopped rolling, his stories became repetitive, and the show was canceled after a year.
The sharp-eyed people at the BBC have made sure that all videos of The Fimbles and The Roly Mo Show have been purged from the internet. Yet they have left one of the most amazing pieces of "found" modern art I've ever encountered, a propinquitous miracle of breakbeat, a television, and a small child. Enjoy (please give it at least 35 seconds).
That video may be one of the best things ever.
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