The Secret Life of Sooty (1990) foreword by George Harrison:
Sooty symbolises the speed at which I wish the world was still turning. Harry Corbett created him in a time when life was less complicated, less competitive and certainly, in media terms, much less violent.
Harry Corbett kept the routine simple and, with a very intriguing Northern cunning (in the best sense of the word) engaged our attention with a basic music-hall routine with himself as the straight man and the naughty Sooty (and side-kick Sweep) as the mischief makers. Let’s face it, it’s pretty corny stuff. Yet…Sooty is a subtle character who, if you missed him in your childhood, you may discover as an adult with your own child, as I did with my son Dhani.
The experience of watching The Sooty Show with a toddler on your lap embraces tender moments to be greatly valued in this mad world. And the Sooty experience continues to sustain real survival of childhood innocence, a safe haven from the bombardment of today’s aggressive entertainment for children.
The early days of Sooty were played out in those thrilling, flickering black and white “snowstorm” television sets, and it is a tribute to Matthew Corbett that decades later the great Corbett creation still lives, although the mighty Harry has moved on to join the Great Majority. Matthew (guaranteed, in the words of Eric Idle, to break the ice at any party) perhaps himself doesn’t realise what an achievement it is to be able to capture the hearts of young ones with a little glove hero in this high-tech, animated world that screams at our children to watch and buy.
Sooty is proof that sanity is still with us. Good luck for the future.
“Another new composition [written in Maui in 1978] was ‘Sooty Goes to Hawaii’, a comedy song that Harrison wrote about Sooty, the popular glove puppet character from British television.” - Wikipedia [x]
“Matthew told Weekend that one of the highlights of his career was performing The Sooty Show for George Harrison’s son. Matthew said: ‘George was one of my idols and here I was being offered the chance to entertain his child.’” - WarringtonGuardian (2013) [x]
