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Friendship Diary - I Feel Sick

- Guys, I feel so dizzy and sick. And my throat feels like someone forced me to swallow sandpaper.

- TIN TIN: Oh, poor baby.

- LADY PENELOPE: I understand too - my little one's so sick.

- ALAN: Look at her eyes - they're so tired they could clap shut in seconds.

- Well, guys, I had this weird dream last night. I was looking at a dictionary of weird words, then Luke, Resus and Cleo came along and warned me about the future of kids' TV - it will fall to ruins if they don't get the help they need. And they only died about four months ago.

- ALAN: We miss them so much, too. In fact it's been years since us puppet Tracys were really off the air, so love is all you need right now.

- TIN TIN: You read that Tired Ninja book, hmmm?

- Yeah.

- TIN TIN: Well, he said what you need is plenty of rest, to eat healthy, to dump all those little ideas of your's into a sparkly little journal, and to spend few minutes before bed brushing your teeth, dumping your ideas into a journal or to do list, and little light reads.

- Mmmmmm. Little light reads.

- ALAN: Aaaaawww. Look, she's falling asleep already. Her eyes and legs are so tired.

- TIN TIN: That's what connects our bodies all together, Alan.

- BRAINS: Did I...er...miss something?

- ALAN: Feel free to join the cuddle too.

Triple Jackpot!

OH MY GOD! You won't believe what I have been up to with my support worker yesterday, and it was as much of a hoot as the stories in my currently-finished book, Horrid Henry's Food Fight. Let me share them all with you. You'll thank me later once you realise this is an advert for T T Retro...

Okay, so, first I went to Boots and I wanted to get one of those limited edition Dove x Bridgerton body washes. But Sundae called out to me most, and since it was my birthday this week, I got birthday cake. Speaking of which, when I went with my other, slightly confused support worker a few days ago, I got not one but three things - Boots' own moisturising cream, Nala's Baby Body Lotion and My Little Coco Pillow Mist.

Now listen here, you lot - if you're absolutely tired of the Johnson's Bedtime Routine, try this for size:

1.First, use Nala's Body Lotion on your arms.

2.Brush your teeth,

3.Wash your face,

4.Apply My Little Coco pillow mist...

5.And finally, read from one of your books or comics.

Sounds good? Five steps are better than three, and as a wise man with a jingle bell hat always says:

"It's always better to have too much than too little."

And now for the moment you've been waiting for, all your live long days.

Actually, it's two, so don't get 'two' excited.

Geddit? Ha!

First off, I went to T T Retro and got a completely different purchase - three, to be exact. It started off quite innocently enough, with the purchase of a lovely comic about forgotten Marvel character Howard The Duck, with small adverts for trinkets and toys the size of your thumbnail on some pages, but then, the biggest surprise came when the kindly owner presented...

TWO ANNUALS! But they weren't any ordinary annuals. They didn't use live actors. They didn't use CGI either. What did they use?

ALAN/BRAINS/TIN TIN/KIPPER/BRUM: Puppets!

Of course, the annuals were named Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet and Lady Penelope. The biggest surprise waited for me when I got home, but in case of spoilers, I'll save it 'til the end.

Next on the menu was a tour around the charity shop - there were so many forgotten treasures for sale, everything was white and green like a tennis court had been there before! I went to the children's section, and at first I wanted to buy a Harry & The Dinosaurs book, but realising I had a sharp eye for book texture, I bought Ripley's Believe Or Not instead - a much better and interesting purchase since Mum had read Harry to me multiple times as a little girl.

And since McGinty's was closed, where did we go? To the food truck, and I was being a bit cheeky with the purchases, because I ordered a cheeseburger and a Diet Coke can. While eating my 100% delicious cheeseburger, I found that reading Howard The Duck and doing a Donald Duck voice for him can get a bit tiring.

And...I crashed out.

But it's okay if I didn't give away the surprise, because the best surprises wait in reviews of books on GoodReads. Go check them out if you can!

A Protest Poem To Space Age Films, By Destiny Angel

You can't make Merry Christmas Earthlings

Into full on CGI

Make the film with puppets instead,

Or else us Angels will cry!

Queen's Rule #3: Nick Jr

Nick Jr will no longer air Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig, and instead air original, beautifully crafted shows using no CGI at all, with such effects including puppets, live-action, stop motion and of course hand drawn animation.

A Letter To Spear & Fang

Dear Spear & Fang,

I’m sorry to hear that one of you is going to be replaced by an AI-generated zombie clone to save money instead of a puppet or another actor. Spear, I’m sorry about what you have to go through after your ‘death’ in Season 2 of Primal, and it makes me sad that people would abandon the human creativity they held so dear in favour of stupid, useless AI.

I mean, we can use AI for ideas and everything, but we can’t use AI to control what cartoons or kids’ shows we see on the telly. I mean, using AI can make entertainment so fast paced it can make every single kid in the world angry and scream until they burst into distraught tears. Speaking of, it’s nice you’re not letting Fang’s two dinosaur children, Meat and Bone, watch Cocomelon, because it makes them throw tantrums in public.

Oh, and dare I mention, Cocomelon looks like it’s been made with AI? Oh dear no! And, from the information I looked up on Instagram, Mainframe was responsible for creating it! No way! They would be better off creating slow paced CGI like back in the day, like they did with ReBoot, or Beast Wars, or Barbie, or Max Steel. Don’t you think it’s a great idea for everyone to stop using AI?

Love,

Sybil

XXXOOO

Cut

And just like that, Lady Penelope cut Parker’s strings off. It can upset anyone who is familiar with Thunderbirds in the ‘90s, but DVLA horrifyingly abused Parker by letting him be aware that he’s a puppet and not a human. Inside, those puppets can act like they’re human, but it’s all about the worth and skill you need to discover your inner human nature - you don’t need to research early apes to discover human worth, all you need now is faith, trust and a little bit of belief to discover there’s a puppet inside your human body.

How Known Strings Attached Begins & Ends

La La Lu: Babyhood Is A Lullaby

1.Gentle mother and daughter games

2.Playing with puppets

3.The kindness that goes into caring for a baby girl

4.Having babies Zoonie and Oink as playmates

5.That first drink of milk

6.Being called 'My little lamb'

What Alan Thinks Of My Trip Out Today

Sorry, everyone, but judging from my reaction, you can't believe how my best friend felt when her support worker took her out for the day. She was in a bad mood all day because her support worker acted like a kidnapper towards her. A kidnapper, I tell you, a KIDNAPPER! She kicked her, whipped her, shouted at her, thrown her against the wall, and even forced her to listen to her noisy radio on purpose! This might be a job for International Rescue, but since we're all puppets, International Rescue might not be here to save you.

So please listen to Classic FM instead. It's much better than those loud, brash, overstimulating radio DJs who speak with American accents. Even they make me uncomfortable.

Are Mike Mercury & Dr Beaker In Love?

There’s something oddly tender lurking beneath the surface of Supercar—a show packed with early '60s optimism, crackling adventure, and marionette-stringed heroics. But on rewatch, particularly during those episodes where it’s just Mike Mercury and Dr Beaker out on a mission, I find myself wondering: is there something more going on between these two?

It’s a strange feeling. A soft, unspoken kind of closeness. Not the flashy kind. Not something spelled out. But something secret. Something coded.

Let’s take stock. Mike Mercury is the classic square-jawed hero—confident, daring, with that smooth voice and cocky charm. Dr Beaker, on the other hand, is nervous, intellectual, awkward, always fumbling for the right word but never without a quiet sort of loyalty. Together, they’re opposites, and yet… they work. Really well. Suspiciously well.

And it's when they're alone—no Jimmy Gibson, no Mitch the monkey, no Professor Popkiss—that something subtle starts to shimmer. Mike never rolls his eyes at Beaker’s fumbling explanations. Instead, he listens. He actually listens. And Beaker, for all his quirks and trembles, seems more confident beside Mike—like Mike's presence grounds him. Watch any mission with just the two of them and you'll start to feel it too. A glance held a little longer than usual. A soft “You all right, Beaker?” after an explosion rocks the craft. Beaker’s bashful smile in return.

I don’t think the show meant for us to see it this way. But that’s the thing about these old shows—you start reading between the lines, and suddenly what was meant as simple partnership begins to feel like something richer, more hidden. Something that might’ve existed behind closed doors in the quiet of the Supercar hangar. A warmth that only ever emerges once the engines are humming and the mission is on.

Could it be that Mike Mercury and Dr Beaker are secretly in love?

Not in any big, dramatic way. But in the way quiet men of the '60s might be: respectful, cautious, wrapped in duty. Their love, if it’s there, is made of sideways glances and unsaid understandings. The kind of love that doesn’t demand attention—but is felt all the same.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s why Supercar still has a strange pull. Not just because of the wild missions or the novelty of the puppet tech—but because somewhere deep beneath the action and the heroics is a love story nobody talks about. One that never says a word… but is somehow always there, riding silently in the passenger seat.

---

Do you feel it too? Or is it just me projecting onto some old marionettes again?

Comic Relief 'Helping Hand' Poll