It's a Square World

[2] The series gained Bentine a BAFTA award in 1962 for Light Entertainment,[3] while a compilation show, screened by the BBC in 1963, won that year's Press Prize at the Rose d'Or Festival in Montreux.

[5] Using scale models, Bentine sank the Woolwich Ferry, sent a Chinese junk to attack the House of Commons (a sketch that was temporarily banned by the BBC as it was considered too political coming up to election time), and planted a forty-foot whale trying to enter the Natural History Museum.

Bentine stood over the sets and narrated as special effects and noises portrayed the movements and adventures of an imaginary tiny cast in what could be a western town one week and a haunted house the next.

The programme also collected fictitious news reports from the eight corners of the world (hence its name), read by Michael Bentine as a newsman or commentator and had many madcap sketches.

Disappointed, they start to backtrack and Bentine before leaving turns off the tap which results in the River Thames disappearing and boats ending up sunk into the mud.

Another show included a short sketch where a detonator plunger was pushed down and a factory chimney fell in the wrong direction, demolishing a terraced house.

This turns into a parody of The Lost World where the explorers encounter monstrous cranes and excavators rampaging through a jungle, using sped-up film footage of real machinery.