Crystal Tipps and Alistair

The style of animation on this children's cartoon series might well have been influenced by the Beatles full-length animated feature Yellow Submarine which had come out a few years earlier. 

To many, the almost psychedelic look and feel of the series was enough for them to dub it 'Crystal Trips with Alistair.' Creator Hilary Hayton certainly invented a land where everything seemed fab and groovy and where best friends Crystal and Alistair lived in a pop-art world that one could easily envisage being a part of John Lennon's 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.' And just like Lennon's trip into the world of 'LSD' so Crystal and Alistair's world included tangerine flowers of yellow and green as well as tangible rainbows and giant bubbles that enabled them to float up to the sky. When they needed more conventional (?) forms of transport Crystal had her own big-propellered biplane. There were no words uttered between the characters, the pictures told the stories clearly enough and to accompany the vivid images there was an equally-expressive score from composer Paul Reade.

Published on December 5th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.