Timmy Mallett explains apartheid

No, *really*! Broadcast on Wacaday during the summer holidays of 1991, this piece shows Timmy Mallett visiting South Africa while apartheid was in the process of falling, all the while describing the inequalities faced and the barriers that were then just beginning to be broken down. I know you're scoffing already, but seriously: this should have won every award going. All children should be made to watch this video.

Those of us who are old enough to have enjoyed Wacaday regularly all remember Timmy as being more than a little barking, but this report really is unbelievably good. (Utterly, utterly brilliant, in fact.) Not preachy, no anger, not even especially political; but the way he explains apartheid simply and concisely enough for children to understand, before pausing and looking down the barrel and asking, "It's not fair, is it?" really got me. I know it's aimed at kids and has a real aren't-grown-ups-silly sort of tone to it, but in all honesty there were documentaries in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's death that didn't paint the picture as effectively as Timmy Mallett did two-and-a-half decades ago. Who says Wacaday wasn't educational? The show your telly was made for, indeed.

You can view the rest of the episode this clip comes from here:

   • Wacaday (summer 1991) - near-full epi...  

Just to clear up something: Wide Awake Club was TV-am's full-length Saturday morning kids' show. During school holidays, they put on a daily cut-down half-hour version (which actually turned out to be even better than its big brother), and this clip comes from that. WAC stands for Wide Awake Club; Wacaday = A Wide-Awake-Club-a-Day, which also sounds a bit like "holiday".

Major shout out to Neil for providing this recording. You can view his fantastic Sooty-related channel here:    / thesootyshoworg   - highly recommended.

(Please remember that this is an off-air VHS recording, so don't go expecting 1080p HD quality. I'm fairly certain that this video isn't commercially available, and I've uploaded it for its historic interest only. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.)