DOES ANYONE remember clackers? One of the most basic – not to say genitally suggestive – toys of the 1970s comprised two plastic spheres, each suspended from a string attached to the same plastic tab.

The Man may have confiscated your clackers (it's health and safety gone mad!) but fret not, Blue Peter has the solution. Originally broadcast 14 October 1971. 1971: Alternatives to dangerous Clackers.

"Meet Clackers the class bear, Gabriel’s got him for the weekend,” said my friend Amanda, as we trudged up the hill to the Iron Age fort with the kids early on Sunday morning. Ah, I thought, that ...