T-Bag Strikes Again Episode 1: The Town Clock

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UK Air Date27/08/1986, 4.20pm
Repeat Screening30/03/1988, 4.20pm
Copyright YearMCMLXXXV (1985)
VTR Date04/10/1985
Fremantle Archive Ref33212 (series ref)
Runtime00:20:14:23
Consecutive Episode Number11
IMDB LinkEpisode page

T. Bag (Tallulah Bag)Elizabeth Estensen
T. Shirt/ThomasJohn Hasler
DebbieJennie Stallwood
Hickery Dickery-DockRoy Barraclough

Make UpJann Marshall
Costume DesignerRaymond Childe
Graphic DesignerAlex Forbes
Stage ManagerBobby Webber
Production AssistantPat Lees
Written ByLee Pressman
Grant Cathro
DesignerJohn Plant
Executive ProducerMarjorie Sigley
ProducersCharles Warren
Leon Thau
DirectorLeon Thau

T-Bag has found a new strain of T-Plant, a Maximusbrewuppacuppa, in the Magic Garden story of a story book. She scatters the silver numbers from the Town Clock in the first story so time stands still so she will never be destroyed. T-Bag kidnaps T-Shirt to be her T-Caddy, when Debbie comes into the shop she decides to help Hickory Dickory-Dock, the town crier, so she thinks small to get into the book and she goes to collect the numbers.
The High-T Website synopsis
Start of a new series of adventures with the wily T-Bag. In the land of the midnight clock, time is standing still because someone had made the hands and numbers of the clock disappear. The Town Crier is distressed because he can’t do his job of calling the time. Debbie arrives to help out and soon realises she’s up against her old adversaries T-Bag and T-Shirt.
TV Times listing
In the land of the midnight clock, time is standing still because someone had made the hands and numbers of the clock disappear. The Town Crier is distressed because he can’t do his job of calling the time. Debbie arrives to help out and soon realises she’s up against her old adversaries, T-Bag and T-Shirt.
TV Times (HTV and C4) listing

If you would like to contribute your favourite/funniest etc quotes from this episode please contact me.

Would you like to hear a story?

(T-Shirt is in the curiosity shop, he rocks the rocking horse and walks back and bumps into the mannequin with T-Bag’s dress on it, he turns around and opens the chest of toys and starts playing with them, the pirate hat “Are me hearties, swab the deck me lad before I make you walk the plank arrr, the sword “O lowly ones thou shalt not pass”, a jester hat “I say I say I say” and then the aeroplane which he flies around and shoots the mannequin. He hears a voice, “T-Shirt”, he looks around at the mannequin it has T-Bag’s head on it, he quickly rubs his eyes and checks again and the mannequin is back to normal. He hears the voice again “T-Shirt”. A story book flings onto the table from on top of a pile of books and it opens up as a pop-up book of T-Bag’s Magic Garden, her new T-Room).
T-Bag: Yuhoo, come a little closer.
Thomas: Corr!
(T-Bag appears in the Magic Garden T-Room).
T-Bag: Tell me little boy, what’s your name?
Thomas: Eh?
T-Bag: I said what’s your name?
Thomas: Eh T..Thomas.
T-Bag: Thomas, really, tell me Thomas would you like to hear a story?
Thomas: Err.
T-Bag: Of course you would. Listening? Once upon a time there was a naughty little boy called T-Shirt.
Thomas: Was there?
T-Bag: Yes there was. Oh he was a wicked child.
Thomas: Was he?
T-Bag: Yes he was and do you know what this horrid little viper did to his best friend?
Thomas: (Gulps) No.
T-Bag: Betrayed her, tricked her and then banished her! Isn’t that a terrible thing to do?
Thomas: I suppose so.
T-Bag: Suppose! Suppose! (lightning strikes) I’ll suppose you. Come here!
Thomas: No!
T-Bag: I said come here!
(Thomas appears in the book as T-Shirt).
T-Bag: Haaa.
T-Shirt: T-Bag!
T-Bag: What did you call me boy?
T-Shirt: Oh I mean Your Majesty.
T-Bag: That’s better.
T-Shirt: What are you doing here? I thought...
T-Bag: I know what you thought, you thought you had beaten me, you thought you had imprisoned me in that dreadful letters game. Well you thought wrong!
T-Shirt: But how?
T-Bag: Quiet. I’ll make you sorry you ever dared gang up against me with that wretched Madam Deborah. Curse her, curse her but that’s all in the past now, you’re going to serve me once again.
T-Shirt: Oh no I’m not!
T-Bag: Oh yes you are.
T-Shirt: Never, never, never, never.
T-Bag: Come under my power boy!
T-Shirt: Debbie, Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.
(We zoom closer to the book as T-Shirt’s cries for help fade away and the book folds up).

Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well

(Debbie walks into the curiosity shop).
Debbie: Hello. Hello. It's me, Debbie. Anybody here? Oh that's very strange.
Hickery (voice): Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well. Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well. Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well.
(Debbie opens the storybook and we see Hickery in the town square).
Hickery: Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well. Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well. Nothing O' Clock and no... oh, oh, go away, go away, shoo, go away.
Debbie: Who me?
Hickery: Yes you, go away, leave us in peace. Skedaddle, vamoose.
Debbie: I'm not going to hurt you.
Hickery: Ohhhhh, that's what they all say, please, go, go. We've quite enough trouble here as it is, don't need any more, thank you very much. Goodbye. Nothing O' Clock and nothing's well.
Debbie: Excuse me. What trouble? Come back.
Hickery: Are you still there? Didn't I make myself plain? Didn't I?
Debbie: You said you were in trouble.
Hickery: Quite right I am and not only me, all of us here. Trouble did you say, oh terrible trouble. Look out, I'm going to start crying (he cries). It's all her fault you know.
Debbie: All her fault. All her fault. Surely he can't mean? Oh but that would be impossible but say if it was. That would be absolutely awful. I better find out, I must get down there. Now what did I do last time? Had to think small, that's it, I had to think small. Hold on a minute.
Hickery: You what?
Debbie: Now think small.
(Debbie thinks small and she is magically transported into the storybook).
Debbie: Ah well, here we go again.

Added: 04/04/2016

A Maximus brewuppacuppa

T-Shirt: I'm fed up with this already.
T-Bag: What was that?
T-Shirt: Nothing.
T-Bag: Have a care with my valuables T-Shirt.
T-Shirt: I'm only cleaning them.
T-Bag: Just take care.
T-Shirt (mutters): Just take care.
T-Bag: Tell you what, let's have a tea break.
T-Shirt: Oh great, I need a rest.
T-Bag: I didn't say take a rest. Make me a good strong cup of tea.
T-Shirt: Just like the bad old days. Just a minute.
T-Bag: What?
T-Shirt: How can I make a cup of tea? I thought we got rid of your magic T-Plant.
T-Bag: Quite so my cheeky faced little friend. The day you and Madam Deborah destroyed my precious T-Plant was the day I lost all my powers.
T-Shirt: So how come?
T-Bag: How come my powers have returned?
T-Shirt: Yes, how come?
T-Bag: This is how come.
T-Shirt: What's that?
T-Bag: I'll tell you. It's a brand new strain of T-Plant.
T-Shirt: A new T-Plant.
T-Bag: Quite so T-Shirt, a Maximus Brewuppacuppa.
T-Shirt: Eh?
T-Bag: Loosely translated means Enchanted Tea Weed.
T-Shirt: Tea Weed.
T-Bag: Yes, every leaf is packed with ten times the power. Each time I take a cup of tea I can feel it's magical energy surging through my bones. It's sensational, it's T-riffic, it's, it's...
T-Shirt: T-rouble.

Added: 04/04/2021

Forget Debbie

T-Bag: Bliss, utter bliss, now let's just keep an eye on things, Cake crumbs and crumpets.
T-Shirt: What's up?
T-Bag: It can't be.
T-Shirt: What is it, let me see. It's Debbie!
T-Bag: It can't be working properly. Oh, she's here, she's here, I don't believe it, she's here, she's here.
T-Shirt: Debbie's here.
T-Bag: Miss know-it-all, Miss smarty-pants, Miss pesky nosey parker, clever clogs is here.
T-Shirt: Great.
T-Bag: If you have any fancy ideas about palling up with her again, you can just forget them, in fact forget her. Is that clear? Forget Debbie.
T-Shirt: Forget Debbie.
T-Bag: Forget Debbie.
T-Shirt: Forget Debbie.
T-Bag: Have you forgotten her?
T-Shirt: Who, Debbie?
T-Bag: I said forget her, have you forgotten her now?
T-Shirt: Forgotten who?
T-Bag: Debbie.
T-Shirt: Who's Debbie?
T-Bag: Excellent, now you just wait here T-Shirt.
T-Shirt: Yes, your Majesty.

Added: 04/04/2012

Don't meddle Miss

Hickery: Numbers, numbers, numbers, i-dee-duh-day, nope.
(T-Bag appears).
Hickery: No. Hello, somebody's left a pair of shoes here and a pair of socks, ooh there's a couple of legs in the socks. Arrrghh, it's you, Baggy pants. I mean, I mean your Majesty.
T-Bag: Please don't grovel, you won't get round me as easily as that.
Hickery: Yes your Majesty, I mean no your Majesty, I, I, I...
T-Bag: Stop babbling man, where is she?
Hickery: Who?
T-Bag: You know who.
Hickery: Er, oh, yes, quite, you, you know who.
T-Bag: Precisely.
Hickery: I'm not sure.
T-Bag: Where is she and why is she here? Answer me you old goat.
Hickery: Why should I? It's our little secret.
T-Bag: Oh it's a secret is it? Oh I see, oh well if it's a secret you mustn't tell a soul, let alone me.
Hickery: Right.
(T-Bag puts Hickory under her spell).
T-Bag: Wrong! Tell me.
Hickery: She's come to help.
T-Bag: How?
Hickery: Collect the missing silver numbers.
T-Bag: From the clock?
Hickery: Yes, must put the numbers back on the clock.
T-Bag: So that's her little game. Well, well, well, this time's she's bitten off more than she can chew. I'm more powerful than ever and those silver numbers are scattered in the most far-flung corners of this book, not even clever clogs can find them. So (T-Bag brings Hickory out of her spell), when you see her again give her this message from me. Don't meddle Miss. Get it?
Hickery: Got it.
T-Bag: Good. Toodlepip.
(T-Bag disappears).
Hickery: Good heavens, oh she frightened the life out of me.

Added: 04/04/2015

"All made up"
In the scene when Hickery calls out the time at five o'clock, T-Bag is in the black cloak but she still has her make up on even though she is supposed to be a poor old lady.

"The Dress Mess-Up"
When T-Bag notices Debbie in the saucer and T-Shirt says “It’s Debbie” we can see T-Bag’s hand and part of her sleeve but somehow she is wearing her ‘velvet’ dress (which she doesn’t get until episode three) instead of her ‘Taffetta’ Wonders In Letterland dress she wears in the first two episodes of this series. This close up shot must have been filmed at a different time with T-Bag in her ‘velvet’ dress.

For more mistakes from other episodes, please see the Nitpicker's Guide

  • Jennie Stallwood, who played Debbie, kept the pop-up book prop featuring the pop-up of the Town Clock.
  • Elizabeth Estensen and John Hasler presented Children's ITV in character as T-Bag and T-Shirt and introduced this episode on it's original broadcast in 1986.
  • Clips from this episode were shown during CiTV's Birthday Bash programme to celebrate 20 years of Children's ITV which aired in January 2003. The programme also featured a guest appearance from Elizabeth Estensen who talked about her role as T-Bag.
  • This is the first episode to have been repeated on Children's ITV when re-broadcast in 1988.
  • Roy Barraclough, who played Hickery Dickory-Dock, sadly passed away on 1st June 2017, aged 81.

  • T-Bag mentions to T-Shirt that he must have thought she had been imprisoned in ‘that dreadful letters game’ referring to the previous series Wonders in Letterland.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 10: Back To Square One)
  • In the curiosity shop, Thomas takes out some of the props used in Wonders in Letterland, these are in order: Rascally Roger's pirate hat (from episode 6), Balthazzar's sword (from episode 2) and T-Bag's jester hat (from episode 9).
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 2: Debbie In The Land Of B)
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 6: Debbie In The Land Of R)
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 9: Debbie In The Land Of E)
  • In the curiosity shop, the manequin is wearing T-Bag's Wonders in Letterland dress.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 10: Back To Square One)
  • In the curiosity shop, the clown puppet that beckons Debbie into the shop in the first series can be seen by the chest.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 1: Arrival In Letterland)
  • T-Bag's jester hat was reused for Tabatha Bag in an episode of T. Bag and The Rings of Olympus.
    (T. Bag and The Rings of Olympus, Episode 9: Torture)
  • Debbie transports herself into the storybook by thinking small. Debbie does this in every series to get into the world of the object from the curiosity shop.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 1: Arrival In Letterland)
    (T-Bag Bounces Back, Episode 1: The Ousting Of Major Happy)
  • T-Bag often refers to herself as ‘The High-T’ as she does during this episode. This is mostly spoken by Tallulah Bag but is said once by Tabatha Bag.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 5: Debbie In The Land Of P)
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 10: Back To Square One)
    (T-Bag Strikes Again, Episode 3: Ben And Bunty Badshot)
    (T-Bag Strikes Again, Episode 9: Charlie Chuckles)
    (T-Bag Strikes Again, Episode 10: The Magic Garden)
    (Turn on to T-Bag, Episode 10: Turn On To T-Bag)
    (T. Bag and The Revenge of the T. Set, Episode 1: The Stone Circle)
    (T. Bag and The Revenge of the T. Set, Episode 3: Lost In Space)
    (T. Bag and The Revenge of the T. Set, Episode 4: Turkish Delight)
    (T. Bag's Christmas Carol)
    (T. Bag and The Pearls of Wisdom, Episode 1: Any Old Port)
  • T-Bag checks on Debbie by looking in her saucer in episode two and sees the Town Clock from this episode.
    (T-Bag Strikes Again, Episode 2: One, Two Buckle My Shoe)
  • The storyline of the clock not working (this time due to T-Bag's interference) was used for an episode in the previous series.
    (Wonders in Letterland, Episode 8: Debbie In The Land Of O)