If you've got children of a
certain age around the house, then you'll know about Bing! If not, his work may have passed you by, particularly if you
don't happen to be an avid fan of CBeebies.
Bing! (and he always comes with
his own exclamation mark) is a charming black rabbit dressed in a colourful set
of dungarees (which people my age would have called a romper suit in the dark
ages). He has a series of adventures
with his friends Sula (an elephant) Pando (a panda) and Coco (another rabbit)
which are all little morality tales in which Bing! learns a lesson about
behaviour and social rules, which makes him a better rabbit. So far, so good.
Where it gets a bit odd, in my opinion,
is when we consider the carers of these animals. None of them are the same species as their
charges. In fact, they're not any
recognisable species at all. For
example, Flop, Bing's! carer, is an indeterminate brown thing that looks like a
favourite toy that's been washed too many times. Moreover, he, and all the other carers and
'adults' in these stories, is only half the size of his dependant, if that.
What bothers me is that these
creatures, whatever they are, clearly run the world they inhabit. They care for their giant animal offspring
and also run the shop, the ice cream van and everything else in between. What you don't see, ever, are the grown-up
versions of the animals of which the children are infants, if you see what I
mean. Clearly Bing!, Sula and the rest
have to grow up, at some point, so what happens to them then? They can't take a position of any
responsibility in their world because the small things with funny shapes have
got those all sewn up.
Is it me, or does this have all
the hallmarks of a classic, if rather surreal, horror film?
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