LAUNCELOT LINK - SECRET CHIMP

When I was about five or six years old, my aunty took me to see The Great Moscow Circus On Ice. It was the early 80's, I was out past my bedtime and loving it. Just as I thought life couldn't get any better, through a shimmer of fog, out onto the ice skated the most beautiful black bear I had ever seen... She was in white skate boots and a purple skirt and skated up to within feet of me. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Years on, I realised that this was completely unnatural and unfair behaviour to expect from a bear, but the joy of that moment never left me... which explains my bizarre fascination with animals exhibiting human behaviours... and the clothes, theres nothing that gets me giggling like a Chimpanzee in a dress...

ENTER LAUNCELOT LINK - SECRET CHIMP!

Launcelot Link was basically 'Get Smart' but with Chimpanzees. A bumbling secret agent with a pretty sidekick, working for the Agency to Prevent Evil (APE), fighting villains from Criminal Headquarters of Underworld Master Plan (CHUMP). This was television gold, and actually quite big budget for the 70's. My favourite twist was Launce and Mata Hairi's band, The Evolution Revolution, whose music was used to send encoded messages to other APE agents. Brilliant! The show ran saturday mornings for 2 seasons and a total of 30 episodes between September '70 and September '72. It was re-run in the mid 80's, which is when I fell in LOVE with it. I have recently discovered that it was released on DVD in 2006... that said, I'm off to EBAY to gets myself some Launcelot Link Love!