Film Little did I know it at the time but my first taste of Charlie Chaplin was through The Kid, a heavily influenced thirteen episode BBC children's television comedy series broadcast in 1987 as part of The Album, a Clive Doig conceived strand. Starring actor Steve Fairnie and sharing the title of of of a film released in 1921, the central character sported very Chaplinesque facial hair and attitude and as a fan site dedicated to his work explains:
"The programmes gave Fairnie the chance to shine in a new environment, drawing on his love of mime, slapstick and visual humour. The Kid himself could be categorised somewhere between Jacques Tati and Charles Chaplin, while the supporting cast were a timeless combination of goodies and baddies. The setting was an eerily unreal row of colourful terraced houses while a peculiar fluorescent pink three-wheeled car was used to get around."They've made all thirteen episodes of the series available on YouTube and although Chaplin is only a small part of the mix, as is his film The Kid, I know now why, on seeing his films later, they seemed so familiar in tone.
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