'Grizzly Tales' strikes you as the sort of thing which might have resulted if Stephen King had been made editor of Beano.

The beginning of each episode is stop animated, as a grotesque geriatric loads up a projector to show a film to a lone boy, who hasn't noticed that the popcorn he is about to eat has turned into a bucket of huge cocockroaches which are about to crawl into his mouth.

The episode proper, which follows, is all 2D, and voiced entirely by Nigel Planer (Neil from 'The Young Ones' for those who remember). These stories are basically about misbehaving children getting their comeuppance, and with titles like 'Death by Chocolate', or 'The Butcher Boy', you'd be correct in assuming that these shorts aren't candy floss entertainment. In fact it's refreshing to see something which, rather than relentlessly harping on about how good the tiresome hero is , actually posits the idea that some kids deserve what they get. If Gerald Mc Boing Boing wandered into this show he'd probably be punished for being an annoying prat, rather than indulged for making stupid noises. Nigel Planer's narration and characterisations are often positively malicious.

Let's look at one episode, 'The Bugaboo Bear', to give you an idea what to expect.

A little girl pesters her parents to buy her a teddy bear. At first they get on fine. They watch TV together, do their homework together, etc. But eventually the little girl grows tired of the bear and starts playing cruel tricks on it, ripping it apart to tear out its voicebox, throwing it out the window, putting it in the microwave, freezing it, and so on. However, while she sleeps, the bear comes to life, chews all the furniture in the room into sawdust, shoves it down her throat and sews her mouth up. She is then taken to a store as a life-sized doll, where a little girl pesters her parents to buy her. At first they get on fine, then the little girl starts to mistreat her...

If all of this sounds traumatic, consider two things.

Firstly, fairy stories always were gruesome. until they were sanitised in relatively recent times (for example, in the original 'Cinderella', the stepsisters cut off their own feet to try and fit the flass slipper on). I think the removal of this sort of material from the kid's fairy tale is what has created such a demand for horror literature amongst adults.

Secondly, kids like this sort of stuff. Roald Dahl could be quite macabre at times, but I can speak from experience that there are 6 year olds who wouldn't have anything else read to them.

Good fun for all ages. Don't assume your kids are too delicate to enjoy this without being traumatised. There is enough silliness in it to prevent it being seriously disturbing. The horror has a comic undertone. The comedy has a horror undertone. But don't take my word for it. This series has won at least 6 awards, including best British cartoon series, twice, as well as the Gold Medal at the 2000 New York Festivals. A great series.