The episodes with Carol Leader tend to be in the lower half of this ranking, but that's not anything daft like innate sexism. It might be that Leader's singing voice isn't quite as melodic as Fred's, though he is, of course, no Sinatra himself. It might also be that her episodes tend to subscribe more to the "status quo" of Chock-A-Block, with nothing as outrageous as the machine going on the blink, or being filled full of scarves for no reason.
However, while as an adult Fred's regular mistakes amuse, as do his looks off-camera, it has to be acknowledged that Leader stays in character far better. Here, while moving the Rockablock back into place, it squeaks along the floor - Harris would have made a crack about it that would raise a smile from the adults, but Carol is full method, completely "Chockagirl" in front of the cameras.
This particular episode contains nothing that special or unusual, but scores high simply due to Leader's enthusiasm. Beaming and smiling, while she always has energy in the role, this is her most naturally energetic performance in all of her episodes. Perhaps its just that, as it was the fifth one she recorded, she might have felt really comfortable in the role at that stage - either that, or she was sick of it and had just gone demob happy.
For trivia, then I mentioned we'd return to the subject of this one and the writer. There's no credited writer for this episode, so we have to dig a little deeper. The paperwork itself doesn't list a writer either, but does cite Michael Graham Smith as the lyric writer for the song "Twenty-Two in a Shoe". Are we to assume, then, that Smith, the writer of the first episode, also wrote this one? Or maybe that it was a collaborative effort where none of the people involved felt comfortable taking sole credit?
I checked with Nick Wilson, who you might think would have an entire vault dedicated to Chock-A-Block research, but instead it seems to have been, bizarrely, a daft kid's show he worked on over 42 years ago, and probably not something he thinks about on a daily basis. His best guess for the writer of this one was: "Probably me!"
An edition that shakes up the usual formula somewhat, with Fred Harris playing games on Chock-A-Block rather than just recounting words. Of course, it's a little frustrating as an adult to watch Fred taking hours to get through a child's maze, but he does it so well, and a few years later was presenting BBC's Micro Live.
Yet what makes this one work so well isn't the difference in the usual set up. It's not even Fred breaking out a jazz recorder for the final song, although that is obviously great. What makes it is the mistakes that get left in the edit, allowing Fred's personality to shine through. This starts right from the outset, with Fred almost tipping one of the Chock-A-Block blocks on the floor with a "Wa-hahh! Nearly dropped it!"
It continues with Rockablock, and the rotating display going past the intended image, causing Fred to wind it back with a "Oooh, what was that?" Later the roller begins to rotate by itself, causing Fred to steady it with a "Woooh, don't go away, we need you. That's it." Towards the end a sound keeps playing on Chock-A-Block, causing Fred to say that he thought he'd fixed a button. This last one isn't clear as to whether it's a genuine mistake or intended - after all, it's extremely unlikely that the buttons on Chock-A-Block actually controlled anything, and were just there for show, while everything was prerecorded.
Talking of mistakes, then the black "panel" on Chock-A-Block which features the computer's name is notably creased in this one, revealing its real origins as just a piece of material. As Sheep was also recorded on the same day, the problem also occurs there, and you can see this issue on the screenshot for that episode.
Carol Leader is now her in her seventies and has retired from acting to work as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She has published academic papers, with her writing focussing on Jungian theory - sadly, she hasn't written any academic works on Chock-A-Block.
Carol did, however, give an interview to the Curious British Telly site. As her time on the show was then over thirty years in the past, her memories understandably extended more towards her start in acting, and her progression into psychiatry. However, she did recall crashing the Chock-A-Truck and "learning to relate to Chock-A-Block as another character."
Carol reacting this way to Chock-A-Block can be seen here when she gives "him" a dust, and tells viewers how much he enjoys it. It's a small thing, but yet more evidence of her commitment to the "reality" of the show. This edition ends with her forgetting to press Chock-A-Block's button to start the end theme before she drives away, then stepping back, saying "Oh! ... nearly forgot" and pressing the button. This could be a deliberate "mistake" to add flavour to the episode, it's difficult to tell as Leader is so within character.
The second episode to be recorded by Carol, recorded the same day as Crow, her enthusiasm is contagious throughout. The showcase song for the week also displays the best of her abilities, as Chock-A-Block breaks out the funk for her role as a train driver. It's a performance given without self-consciousness, Leader fully embracing the role, and with the illusion of her being in a moving train, it adds dynamism to a solid episode of kid's TV.
Eight of the Chock-A-Block episodes only exist as off-air domestic VHS recordings, all of which are, coincidentally, the top-ranked ones in this article. I mention this because the quality of the screenshots for this article are very variable - with no official VHS or DVD release, or even streaming, Chock-A-Block isn't available to the public in high quality, which is reflected in the screenshots here.
Although the Leader episodes had the benefit of hindsight, it's almost eerie how some of the alternating episodes fit together, even though they were recorded weeks apart. Some of them feature the operator puzzling that someone else has been messing around with the machine, and so on, almost as if it was pre-planned.
Not so with this edition, though. The fourth Fred Harris episode to air, it's the one where he debuts Chock-A-Block's dispenser button... which is basically an excuse to bring out a puppet to perk up a flagging show. However, while Crow was recorded three weeks later, it aired first, meaning that when Fred opens the dispenser and asks "Have you seen this?", a generation of kids were saying "Yes we have!"
It's fresh, though. Fred parks the Chockatruck in a different direction to all other episodes, and then there's the subject of rap. The origins of UK rap are largely undocumented, perhaps because it took a while for the genre to get its own identity over here, and not just be an obvious copy of the American model. Yet perhaps the murky "it started to emerge in 1982" claims are because no one wants to admit that this generally quite serious and politicised musical form started out in the UK with novelty comedy songs.
While "Rapper's Delight" was the first rap record to chart in the UK in 1979, it was from the US, and 1980 saw raps about soap operas ("Dallas" by The Mexicano), Geordies ("Friday Neet (Gannin Te The Toon)" by David Baird) and a Rapper's Delight parody ("Chip Shop Wrapping" by Allen & Blewitt). Only 1979's "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 3" by Ian Dury and The Blockheads can provide some cred-based origins of the form in the UK.
So it was a very American artform that took a while to cross over to the UK, and when it did, people just wanted to, frankly, take the piss. But here we are, July 1981, and Fred Harris is something of a trailblazer, recording the voice of a rapping mole.
While stated elsewhere that the real hook of most episodes is the final three or four minutes, this isn't the case here. While an ethereal song about ducks on water is quite pleasant, the opening sequence is the real draw in this one, as Fred reacts to Chock-A-Block being mysteriously crammed full of silk scarves and the Block Stock being badly arranged, all while whispering conspiratorially with the viewers.
It's a bit of a change to the status quo, and, while it's not quite Chock-A-Block being possessed by Satan and going on a murder spree, it does shake up things a little, and adds a small element of curiosity to what is usually the by-the-numbers part of the show. To cap it all, while Fred may talk about the elephant in the room, he doesn't mention the snake...
The BBC wiped many archive programmes to save space, a practice that stopped around 1978, and a proper archiving process began to emerge from 1981. All of which makes it strange that Chock-A-Block - a programme made in 1981, and still repeated on the BBC until 1989 - didn't survive intact.
Of the series, then seven of the episodes - Train, Play, Cole, Cat, Pig, Shoe and Snake - exist in the archives only as off-air domestic video recordings. Magpie is the one episode that doesn't - as yet - exist at all in the BBC archives, but 15 days after this article was originally published, a domestic copy was uploaded on streaming sites.
It'd be wonderful to take some kind of credit and suggest this article jogged some memories and got this missing episode out in public. Who knows, maybe it did? But there isn't any confirmation that this is the case, and instead it appears to be just a very bizarre but welcome coincidence.
Magpie is arguably overrated here, flying almost to the top in the excitement of it being found. But not only is it a solid episode in its own right, it also contradicts a lot of what was said in other parts of this article. For a start, it's one where Carol Leader - who brings her A Game - gets to do bits of business outside of the normal scope of the show. The opening involves a fly getting stuck inside the workings of Chock-A-Block and affecting its operation.
There's also saucier bits than normal, such as Carol telling off Simple Simon for winking at her. It's not quite a topless mermaid sitting on the lap of Bagpuss (something which did actually happen), but there's a real vibrancy in this one. Carol ends the show singing a melancholy song about a shy Magpie like she's in the cast of Hair, and then cheerily waving goodbye. There's even a "rock cake" gag which she performs so well it's not clear if it's scripted or a genuine ad-lib.
As can be seen from the screenshot above, this isn't exactly broadcast quality, but it does appear to be the result of pointing a camera at a screen. The origins of this copy and whether it'll be returned to the BBC are still things we'll find out in the future, but for now, Chock-A-Block is once again a series where all the episodes exist.
Sometimes you don't need all the facts, data and semi-serious analysis. Sometimes all you need to know is that Fred Harris puts on a dress, pretends to be an old lady, and dances with a cartoon pig.
If you'd like to treat me to a coffee for this look at Chock-A-Block, then the button is below. But if you don't, that's fine too, and I hope you've enjoyed the article.