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Television of Monday, 22 March 2010

Source: Daily Guide/ Francis Addo

Uncle George Returns On Skyy Digital TV

GEORGE LAING, host of popular 90s kids TV programme, Kkyekyekule, is back on the silver screen after a long hiatus.

Uncle George, as he popularly called, is currently hosting a new kids programme on Planet Kids, a children’s TV channel on Skyy Digital TV.

Speaking exclusively to BEATWAVES, he said the concept of the programme is not a far cry from the lovable Kyekyekule series. This show, he emphasized, will continue to build on the standards he set with Kyekyekule.

In his days as the Kyekyekule man, Uncle George and his TV crew moved from one school to the other to not only entertain children, but teach and learn with them and then telecast it on TV. Through Kyekyekule, Uncle George became a friend to a lot of kids.

The new programme, he disclosed, will not be solely about him although he will host it by himself for some time and then recruit some kids to take over while he runs things behind the cameras.

“What has been happening to children over the years is that they’ve been watching with adults. So if there is something that is specifically for adults the children are also watching. And with our culture, there is no explanation to the child, this and that and that and this.

They just get the raw information and he or she runs away with it. But with Planet Kids, every programme that is aired is kid-centric. It specifically made for children, so you don’t have worry about what your children are going to watch.

“This is the first time in Ghana a TV channel is specifically dedicated to children”, were his explanations on the focus of Planet Kids. He anticipated the programme will give children the right kind of exposure to be better people in society.

Before his comeback Uncle George was managing St. Anthony’s School, his mother’s establishment. The man who is of a Scottish decent described his link with children as divine.

“I don’t know whether it is because of my head or beard that God is using me as medium for the children.

I got up one day and my head bumped into a table and I asked myself, aren’t children suffering in this country? What can I do about it? With me, I am led by the divine force. Those words; ‘kiddiboobs and kiddibabs’, I don’t know how I got the names. It is all from God”. Uncle George started schooling at Ridge Church School before continuing abroad in 1962. He later returned home to enroll at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), after which he started working with his mother at her school.