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Original poster

What TV programmes scared you as a kid?

293 replies

Coffeeandcrumpets · 01/02/2021 20:26

Just as the title asks, what TV programmes scared you as a kid? I'll get the ball rolling. I'm an 80s child and I hated Doctor who. The music was terrifying and I had to leave the room. I also hated he-man. Especially when he shouts 'I have the power' in the opening credits. Bag puss also frightened me. A very large pink cat was unnatural!

OP posts:
abstractzebra · 01/02/2021 20:45

Dr Who - I also used to hide behind the sofa.
Also Rod Hull and Emu too. It was bizarre and so violent. He used to knock people to the ground!

No programme ever made will ever be more scary than a railway safety film we were shown at school in the seventies. It was so traumatic, I thought I had just dreamt it in a hideous nightmare. It was only when I worked with a man of a similar age who confirmed he had seen it too, I realised it was real!
You can watch it on YouTube now I think but, honestly, don't! Confused

ssd · 01/02/2021 20:46

And I was terrified of the Daleks Grin

LetterFromLorah · 01/02/2021 20:46

Effing hell I’ve just googled nosey bonk WTF is that???!!

Shock Indeed!!

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TV
BeautifulStar · 01/02/2021 20:46

Mine was Rentaghost - didn’t someone walk round with a horse’s head on?

NannyR · 01/02/2021 20:46

Arthur c Clarke's world of strange powers used to freak me out to the point that I couldn't sleep but I still watched it every week. It involved stuff like spontaneous human combustion which seemed to be a common thing in the eighties according to programmes like this!

bettyshotspot · 01/02/2021 20:47

Haha, I was traumatised for years after being made to watch when the wind blows at school in the 80's

NovemberR · 01/02/2021 20:48

Paulus the Little Gnome. The witch was terrifying!
Also Dr Who and lots of public safety adverts from the 60s and 70s aimed at children! Anyone remember The Grim Reaper lurking around water filled quarries and on electricity pylons and railway lines?
There was a terrifying Sapphire and Steel programme where Sapphire got trapped in a house in an old photograph as well...

BeautifulStar · 01/02/2021 20:48

Just googled rentaghost too - no wonder it scared me!

What TV programmes scared you as a kid?
CherryRoulade · 01/02/2021 20:49

Dr Who
Captain Scarlet
Sometimes Lost in Space

JaneJeffer · 01/02/2021 20:49

The Children of the Stones

There was an adaptation of Jane Eyre that was very creepy with Bertha screaming her head off in the attic.

LadyCatStark · 01/02/2021 20:49

Rainbow because I saw someone who was dressed up as Bungle remove his head and there was a person inside! I thought Bungle had eaten him!

And when a bit older, the demon head master.

Blacktothepink · 01/02/2021 20:50

Pipkins 😬
I remember nosey bonk 😬

LApprentiSorcier · 01/02/2021 20:50

No programme ever made will ever be more scary than a railway safety film we were shown at school in the seventies.

Are you thinking of The Finishing Line by any chance? That is truly a nightmare - not so much the blood and gore but the way the adults are cheering the children on!

Original poster
Coffeeandcrumpets · 01/02/2021 20:50

Wow, so many memories. Not sure why I was frightened of bag puss. Just creepy and unnatural. Good to hear I'm not alone with hating doctor who. The episode wasn't too bad, but the music at the end was something else!!

OP posts:
Joanie34 · 01/02/2021 20:51

Ken Dodds diddy men gave me nightmares 😱😭 also Dr Who was so scary. Did I dream the talking spiders?!!

JaneJeffer · 01/02/2021 20:51

Sometimes Lost in Space
God yes Doctor Smith terrified me!

FlatterNow · 01/02/2021 20:53

Maelstrom. Terrifying dolls.

abstractzebra · 01/02/2021 20:54

@LApprentiSorcier it must be that!
Once I'd mentioned it to someone else, it was a relief to know I hadn't made it up!!
I remember it giving me proper nightmares afterwards!
What were they thinking showing that to young children? I reckon I must have been about 8!

lots33 · 01/02/2021 20:54

Kids programme called Dark Towers, 80s sometimes. And the Witches if of east wick when I was about 8!

WouldstrokeTomHardy · 01/02/2021 20:55

Tales of the unexpected here too. So much so that DH and I have been watching them on YouTube. Utterly bizzare. Roald Dahl had a very odd mind

letsgomaths · 01/02/2021 20:55

Not a TV programme, but the song "The Laughing Policeman" on the All Aboard record.

user1460571583 · 01/02/2021 20:56

The Incredible Hulk, his eyes when he used to turn green 😱😱

SpencerGregson · 01/02/2021 20:56

Definitely Dr Who and Malestrom.

The anti smoking adverts with Nic O Tine too.

To counterbalance the scary public information films, google the 'Fatal Floor' one. It remains one of the (unintentionally) funniest things I have ever seen.

BeautifulStar · 01/02/2021 20:56

Kids programme called Dark Towers

Ooh I remember watching that at school - they used to play it each week on the Tv on wheels and we couldn’t wait to see the next episode (even though it gave me nightmares!)

TheySeeHerRowling · 01/02/2021 20:56

Yes to the petrifying safety films we were shown in the 70s! Worse than any horror movie I've ever seen.

Also freaked out by those Czech cartoons - there was just something so unsettling about them. As an adult I went to an exhibition in Prague about the history of Czech animation and it brought back that creepy feeling.

The absolute worst was a series called The Changes that featured an illuminated communicating rock - I was about 5 or 6, I think, and couldn't stop thinking about it at night for weeks.