THE RETURN OF THE WOMBLES

It's great to see the Wombles making a return to Britain's television screens, as there's a true dearth of home-grown original programmes for children as costs are slashed across the broadcasting sector.

What's also good is that the makers aren't afraid to confront controversial issues head-on:

In a hard-hitting first episode, Tomsk is mistaken for a badger after a drunken prank with a bottle of Tipp-ex and black felt-tip pen goes horribly wrong, and he blunders into the path of the local cull. A tragic lesson on the futility of the government's misguided attempts to tackle bovine TB.

In the second episode, the gang have a fight on their hands as a private contractor wins the Wimbledon Common litter contract. Worse follows as their new rivals neglect to do their CRB check and accidentally employed a mass killer who's forgotten to take his medication. Madame Cholet goes missing.

Episode Three: Orinoco joins the English Defence League, and rounds on Great Uncle Bulgaria as a "dirty bearded muzzie immigrant". Orinoco soon learns the error of his ways and learns to live and let live, but not before Bulgaria suffers a stroke that leaves him dependent on round-the-clock care for the rest of his days.

Episode Four: Wimbledon social services, concerned that the infirm Bulgaria is living in little more than a hole in the ground filled floor-to-ceiling with obsessively collected rubbish, have him taken into care and the burrow condemned. Worse, the Womble organisation face unlimited fines for illegal storage of contaminated waste and are bankrupted. It's all too much for Tobermory, who is found with his head in a gas oven. The rest of the gang watch bewildered as a Tesco Express opens on the site of what used to be their home.

Five: Consigned to life on the streets and quite unsuited to modern life, Wellington and Bungo earn money begging outside Waterloo Station, while Orinoco is less discerning about the company he keeps and even less careful of how he plies his trade. Telling his pals he's got an appointment near King's Cross, he is never seen again. Viewers see a rolled-up carpet being dumped at a council recycling centre, one grey paw flopping from the end.

Fade to black.