The Littlest Hobo The Complete Second Season   Starring: London Mediumrare Entertainment RRP: £24.99 FHED2743 Certificate: PG Available 06 September 2010

The Littlest Hobo tells the story of a dog which travels the roads of Canada helping worthy people sort out their lives...

The Littlest Hobo (1980) was a popular show whose format was based on a 1958 American film directed by Charles R. Rondeau. Season two of the show has been released as a three disc DVD set. Although the dog is called London, he is never actually named in the show. The success of the show, and honestly it was a big hit when it first came out, meant that it attracted many character actors and even some big Hollywood names. The disc contains all eighteen episodes of the show's second season.

In truth, you’re only likely to want to buy this if you either have fond memories of the show, which I didn't think I had - I didn’t even remember seeing it when it was originally transmitted, so how come I knew all the words to the catchy title tune? Weird.

For younger children, who are able to suspend disbelief that a dog could act with this level of predetermination, this is ideal fodder. The morals are simple and the acting can at best be called cute. Here is a world were nothing really threatening ever happens and each episode ends with a happy ending.

The show is presented in its original aspect ratio and although the picture is petty clean the quality looks like the show was shot on video tape, eminently watchable, if a bit soft from the conversion.

You can’t really blame the show for the absurdity of having a dog as it main lead after all my generation was asked to accept that kangaroos and dolphins could do the same thing, it seems to be a part of human nature to anthropomorphise the animals which surround us.

Given the age of the show it came as no surprise that the extras were restricted to episode synopsis only. Personally, I hated the show, but then I hated all the other shows with animals, I was the kid giving the finger to flipper as he couldn’t get out of the water, whilst I made my getaway. That said I can see that for younger kids these safe moralistic tales will most probably be a big hit.

7

Charles Packer