Originally part of the Watch with Mother children’s series, Joe was a lovely little still frame animation concerning the titular little boy and his family.
The central characters were Joe, his mum and dad, Gran, Rosie and Mrs Higgs.
All of them had red rosy cheeks and actually looked quite sickly.
The family managed a motorway transport café and there were always lots of big burly lorry drivers about. Joe would sometimes climb into the backs of lorries and be whisked down the A6 as fast as lightning.
While that’s probably not behaviour we ought to be encouraging in our young ‘uns, Joe remains one of the true classics of 60s British children’s television and deserves to be remembered far better than it seems to be.
The five-minute-long episodes were narrated by Colin Jeavons and beautifully drawn by Joan Hickson for the Q3 animation company. The stories were scripted especially for young children by Alison Prince.
