TV shows as a child that freaked you out

[Starfish125]

Just thought I would start a threat for fun, I was trying to describe this particular show to my partner and he had no idea what I was talking about but after much researching I found out it was Wizbit, which was played by Paul Daniels. The yellow hat and the rabbit honestly freaked me out. For context I'm 33 so this was early 90s it must have been on..anyone got any shows that still give them the ick as an adult?

Also 999

The muppets really freaked me out. I don't mind them now but I'm still not keen. Not sure why.

Also not a TV show but Labyrinth. I loved it (still do) but the goblins gave me nightmares.

Knightmare, threads, and a garfield special with an escaped black panther

I had the horrors for weeks- that the Black Rabbit was in my wardrobe or something :)

There are some horrible bits in that film even for adults to see.

Also Running Scared with Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill for the theme tune

Also Wordy from Look and Read. Shudder.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Charn!!

Also The Riddlers and a bit later The Ghost Hunter

The witch in the Wizard of Oz
Worzel Gummidge
Also remember Dark Towers
And the mysterious "stranger danger" videos again shown at school and dire warnings to primary aged kids. I was terrified!

Courage the cowardly dog always gave me a bad feeling

@Farmhouse1234 Look and Read did Dark Towers I think. Then there was the one about the freaky suave kid whose space craft landed in the lake. Scared me as a kid. Was around 1983/84. I liked Dark Towers though.

Thankfully nosey whatshisface isn't something I've ever seen before nor ever want to see again.

Those tripod things scared me.

The bald guy in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom who ripped out the heart.

I didn't like James Bond films.

And for some reason Henry Woolf in Words and Pictures terrified me.

As pp have mentioned

The singing ringing tree
Children of the stones

but also Ken Dodds Diddymen, grotesque things!

Doctor Who. The Dalek episodes and there was one episode I recall called Doctor Who and The Slugs, these awful things that wrapped themselves around people's arms and faces and suffocated them.

An episode of Black Beauty, Black Beauty and The Ghost, which was a scary clown. Never forgotten it!

Chocky, as a PP mentioned. Really frightening but the wonderful James Hazeldene made it all ok.

Most of Grange Hill as it really rang true at the time, especially the girl bullies as I was at an all girls school.

The public information films, especially about fireworks and electrified railway lines. Even now, when I'm occasionally travelling by rail and standing on the platform, I cannot bear to look at that middle rail.

Think this was an educational school programme or something?

The theme music though 😱

Crime watch- used to have me checking behind the curtains, under the bed and in the wardrobe for intruders.

The Towering Inferno put me off tall buildings for ages.

The Box of Delights was scary for some reason.

Agree about The Owl Service - petrified me and gave me many sleepless nights.

Doctor Who and The Green Death - spent most of the time behind the sofa but I recall it as the first time I was scared by the TV.

DD used to scream at the weird bear in Teletubbies and

DS used to run from the room when Justin Fletcher appeared as Rapids Johnson in Gigglebiz ‘No no no …maaaan’

Oooh you all just helped me find that! I've often wondered what that tune was 'it's time to build yourself a wall!'' I'd got the words wrong of course, I must've been focussing on what the bloke was doing.

Another one I got wrong was a road safety one 'Don't Step Out when you're close to the road- or you may find that you lose your toes.' I don't know if that was real in that form lol. Of course if it was the original lyrics to the song, that'd be far more hairy as a road safety campaign.

I found the public information films a bit scary too.
Also Doctor Who of the late 60s with Patrick Troughton. He was very scary.
I must be one of the few who loved Hartley Hare ☺️

Add Dark Crystal to that list. Jim Henson was responsible for much of my childhood terror.

Knightmare was nightmarish. It was so dark.

Rentaghost was weird but it didn't scare me.

Tripods and Chocky both deeply unsettling.

Also the Box of Delights. I know some people loved it but to me it was creepy.

Wordy was a bright orange child friendly thing and then in the same programme came either scary Peep Peep The boy from space or the Dark Knight from Dark Towers. This is the reason that 1980's children had nightmares.

Oh yes, we watched the Boy from Space at school too, it was a strange programme.

Sapphire and Steel creeps me to this day, the one in the train station and the people with no faces - was that one episode or two? Horrible.

Late 70s / early 80s… hammer house of horror episode about a creepy hitchhiker in a yellow raincoat with a very long fingernail on his little finger - I was absolutely terrified.. don’t think I should have been watching it (I was about 10) - what were my parents thinking…

How about The Krypton Factor? I remember there was a bit where they had to seemingly cross something by stepping from one hexagon to another. If they trod on the wrong hexagon, they fell or went up in smoke or something. That was mildly trepidatious.

Probably been answered as my internet keeps glitching but the one in the castle was Dark Towers it fuelled my love of all things woo 😂