It was a children's programme with an interesting development. The programmes were made in France. Eric Thompson (Emma's father) didn't pay any attention to the original French script and just wrote words based on what he was watching.
Re TMR
My understanding is/was that the narrator (the father of a well known British actor) knew nothing of the French story an more or less "said what he saw"
Dang, I should have remembered the theme. It was in a puzzle a couple of years ago, perhaps a Prize, or maybe The Listener even. Speaking of the latter, those who do it will see quite the coincidence with 14, albeit a different 14.
Thanks very much Brockwell and all who have commented here. I enjoyed this crossword and think I’ve solved it. But (and I may be missing something obvious because no one else has brought it up here) I am scratching my head over the complete parsing of 1a. I parse the first five letters as 2,3 [Spain’s], [No.1]; and can see how [quietly] may give the last letter; but can’t work out how [seed holding serve] fits in to give the rest. Can anyone offer any pointers?
Hi StevenC
It's quite complicated. It's 1 (Spain's No.1), then a seed (in a fruit, perhaps) 3, around a (winning) serve 3, and two letters for "be quiet".